


Paralyzed

by VEC_16_04



Category: Women's Soccer RPF
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-27
Updated: 2017-12-31
Packaged: 2018-02-27 05:51:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 71
Words: 219,212
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2681528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VEC_16_04/pseuds/VEC_16_04
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She switches off her alarm and gets out of bed, only to fall onto the ground. Once she recovers from the fall, she turns onto her back and slams the back of her head against the floor and stays like this for a while. It has been almost three months and she still forgets. Is she ever going to get used to it? She hopes not.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

She switches off her alarm and gets out of bed, only to fall onto the ground. Once she recovers from the fall, she turns onto her back and slams the back of her head against the floor and stays like this for a while. _It has been almost three months and she still forgets._ _Is she ever going to get used to it?_ She hopes not.

 

Once she has taken her moment she pulls herself up and sits against her bed. Then she pulls herself in the wheelchair. She turns the wheels and goes to her closet, she takes some clothes and afterwards she goes to the bathroom. After a ‘quick’ bath she has breakfast

She makes her way to the Starbucks. She is still not used to the looks she gets. She curses on the trench she has to go over. She has to hold the doorpost with both hands to pull herself (and the wheelchair) inside. While she waits in line she notices it is a different barista than normal. “Great, this day could have started better” she mutters while trying to get a good position to be able to make her order. The counter is coming way too high for her to be able to face the barista. Her usual barista Kate isn’t in today. Kate knows about her, she knows how she wants her coffee and most important she doesn’t look at her with pity in her eye.

It is almost her turn and she is anxious about having the barista leaning over the counter to look at her, and looking at the wheelchair before asking if she can repeat her order. She is thinking about turning around and skip her coffee when the person in front of her turns around and asks what she’s going to drink.

 

I think I looked surprised before “…. an Americano, please” I say with gratitude. The girl makes her order and finishes with “and an Americano, please” While we are waiting for our order, I thank the girl. She doesn’t seem to do it out of pity. But for me it looks she just wanted to be friendly and for that I’m happy and thankful. We talk for a bit but once we got our coffees, I say thanks once again and we part ways. She goes right and I go left. I roll myself a couple streets further into my physiotherapist office.

 

I lie on my back on the treatment table. Mac, my physiotherapist, is moving my legs so the muscles won’t disappear. “So any news?” “No still no feeling or anything like that” I say and let my mind wonder a bit “Have you used that hand cycle yet?” “No, maybe tomorrow” After this Mac switches to another topic knowing he won’t get much more out of her.

…

After physiotherapy I go back home and install myself in the couch, I stay there for the rest of the day and watch a couple of movies.

 

 

_The ball flies towards the goal and I’m ready to take it, the moment I have the ball in her hands a smile appears on my face. But it is not for long, a forward comes sliding in and slams me against the post. The moment I hit the ground after slamming into the post I know something is wrong. I stay down, still holding the ball._

I wake up, my clock shows 0248. “great” I say and push my head a bit further into my pillow. It is already bad enough I had to deal with this once, having to deal with this almost every night is just not fair. I fall back asleep a while later.

_I want to get back up but I can’t feel my legs anymore and I certainly can’t move them. Christie comes sprinting towards me, knowing that I normally don’t stay down. When she comes closer I can see she sees the panic in my eyes. She slows down a bit and once she is close enough I manage to say, I can’t feel my legs._

 

 

0634, The alarm goes off. Still sleeping I step out of bed. Slamming to the ground I’m remembered to it once again. This time I slam my fist a couple times onto the ground, for once again forgetting. Once I sit back in my wheelchair I get myself to the closet and put some clots in my lap before rolling the wheelchair (and myself) into the bathroom, luckily I bought a house with shower and bath. Taking a shower would have been difficult now. I put my clots on a small table and I pull myself in bath once it is half filled. I look at my hand that already begins to swell. _Great, no I will have even more trouble getting around._

 

I roll into the Starbucks shop at my usual time and am glad to see Kate again. “What happened to you?” Kate asks when she notices my swollen hand “I hit my hand when I fell” Kate looked up, she knew I wasn’t telling the whole truth but let it slip “So what is it for today an Americano?” At that moment someone entered the store, after I saw who it was I said “Yes and also a cappuccino” Kate looked curious but turned around to make the two coffees. I turned around and smiled at the girl. “Hi” “Hi, do you come here every day?” I smile but before I can answer Kate yells “She comes her at least ones a day, I’m sure if she could she would come more often.” “Speaking about that, where were you yesterday?” Hope asks Kate “Jake is back in town” Hope just laughs, and the girl looks confused. …

The girl stands there a bit awkwardly and smiles. Before they can say anything else Kate hands them their coffee. Kelley is surprised that she also received a cup. She looks curious at her own cup, she only had been here a couple times and she would be surprised if the barista had remembered her name. But all she could do after she read it was smile.

We walked, she walked and I rolled, outside “So Hope, busy day today?” I look surprised at her. She shows me her cup, _The girl who can make Hope laugh._ I smile and make a mental note to talk to Kate about it. “Yeah, a 10k run. I’m trying to break my record” that got a laugh out of her “And what about you …” “ow, Sorry. I’m Kelley” she said while sticking out her hand. But noticed I was holding my cup with one hand and was rolling the wheel forward with my other hand, so I didn’t really have a free hand to shake hers. “Do you want me to carry your cup?” I smiled “that would be nice, I haven’t quite figured it all out”

“So Kelley, what about your day?” “Euhm” I saw and recognized her look before she said “I play soccer, I have training later today” It looked like she was almost apologizing because she was playing soccer while I couldn’t play anymore.

 “It’s alright. I won’t resent you for doing what you always have wanted to do. It is not because I can’t play anymore that no one else is allowed to play” I say but something inside me changes. _God I would give everything to be able to play again. The feeling of flying to the air to make a safe or to feel her foot hit the ball …_

Kelley sits down on a bench next to me. “Which team do you play for?” “The Seattle Reign, in the new NWSL league” Hope nods, she had heard about that league. They had asked her if she wanted to be part of it but that was obviously before all this happened. “I’m actually on the reserve team, I’m training on myself hoping one day I will be good enough to make the pro team.”

Kelley talks for a while before Hope has to get to physiotherapy and Kelley has to go to the gym.

 

Hope gets back home and comes across some articles written about her, that is really the last thing she could handle today. The thing, closest to Hope and small enough is flying to the room a couple seconds later. It hits the wall and the glass shatters before it falls onto the ground. It didn’t relieve all of the anger that was inside her but it did relieve a part of it. All she wants do is to stand up and go for a run to clear her mind but for now that was not possible, maybe she would never be able to do that again. Hope felt the anger boiling up again but this time nothing was thrown.

 

 

When Kelley gets at her small studio, she is overwhelmed, she still can’t believe she had come across Hope and talked to her, like really talked to her. Kelley watches a champion’s league game before she goes to bed.

 

 

Although she is free tomorrow, she has set her alarm on 0630. She falls asleep a couple minutes after. The next day Hope woke up and once again she fell out of her bed, but this time she remembered that she couldn’t walk before she hit the ground so maybe she was going into the right direction, at least that is what her doctor would say (if he knew about all this). She came into the shop a bit earlier and talked with Kate while she made Hope’s Americano this time a vanilla flavored one. Kate was almost finished making Hope’s coffee when Kelley stepped into the shop. Hope quickly ordered a coffee for Kelley.

“So how was your run yesterday? Your legs aren’t too tired today” Kelley asks when she sees me. Kate’s reaction is golden. All I could do is smile before answering “No, I’m used to it by now and I beat my record by 30 seconds. How was your day? You made the pro team yet?” I countered “I did” Kelley smiles before answering “But then I woke up”. This also gets a laugh out of Hope. Kate looks at the banter between the two in front of her and although she is confused she smiles.

 

They ‘walk’ back outside and this time Hope follows Kelley. “Where do you train?” “Depends on what I train. I have found a small park where I can practice on my shots, I run in a gym close to my studio, …” Hope interrupts her before she can continue “You run inside?” Hope asks with something like a disgust face. “Yeah, I haven’t really found a place outside where I can run yet. I used to run on the beach but obviously I can’t do that here.” Hope wanted to ask where Kelley lived before but she didn’t found that appropriate, she didn’t know Kelley that well after all. Hope thought about the trails she used to walk and remembered something. “Do you have time tomorrow to go run?” Kelley looked confused “You and me, on a run?” she asked surprised “Yeah” Hope says enthusiastically Kelley tempts to remind Hope she is paralyzed below the waist and therefor there is no way she is able to run but she chooses not to. Instead she says “Cool, when?” Hope doesn’t want to come across to many people so she says “0550?” Kelley looks at her “well I guess I will have to go to bed early today” “great, see you at the Starbucks at 0550?” “yes”

They say goodbye and part ways.


	2. Chapter 2

The next day Hope wakes up and is about to forget she can’t use her legs, she is already starting to fall but manages to stop falling. She grabs a handful of the bed sheets and manages to stay on the bed. She looks at the wheelchair that stands a bit further, she has no idea how she is supposed to get in it from her bed. She let herself fall onto the ground so she can climb into the wheelchair (like she is used to do). 15 minutes later Hope sits in a never used hand cycle. Maybe she should have tested this one out. She does know it is properly adjusted. So it should not be too hard for her to use it. She goes on a short and not too fast ride before making her way to the Starbucks. Kelley is a little bit early and sees Hope coming her way. She looks like one of those professionals. She could easily be an athlete that is performing in the Paralympics. Although she might need to get faster before being able to compete in the Paralympics

They talk a bit before they start their run and Kelley is surprised how fast Hope can go. “You sure this is your first time?” She asks after a few miles “Yeah” After another couple of miles Hope slows down and leads them to some hill with a beautiful view. Kelley looks almost at it with an open mouth “Wow, this is so beautiful” Hope moves her arms around a bit. She is going to be so sour tomorrow, luckily she doesn’t have planned much. She grabs 2 bottle of Gatorade out of the backpack (attached to the bike) and hands one to Kelley. They enjoy the moment for a while before they continue their run.

 

Kelley goes inside to order, Hope knows she isn’t allowed to enter with the bike but seconds later Kate comes outside and tells Hope to just come in. The busiest part still had to come (probably in 30 minutes) and Kate was already worried when her daily costumer didn’t show up so she wants to know everything about it. Kate was glad to hear Hope finally starts to do something. Kate made a mental note to thank Kelley one day for what she did. Kate listens to mainly Kelley talking about their run. She looks at Hope who just shrugs, she then continues listening to Kelley. She didn’t know what it was about Kelley, but Kelley made Hope want to fight, want to get out of the wheelchair. And for that Kate was thankful. 

 

When Kelley finally gets to her place later that day, she is exhausted. She takes a hot shower and heats up some left overs before lies down on the couch. She picks up her laptop and starts doing some research on Hope’s injury. She takes some notes and watches the video of that particular moment a couple times. To see the keeper hit the post and fall onto the ground is difficult but then to see the expression on Hope’s face when she realizes she can’t move her legs is almost too much. Kelley wipes away a few tears. She sees the others gathering around Hope and signaling to their medic. The panic is written on all their faces. Hope is walked off the field on a stretcher and although she gets an applause people are just shocked. Kelley had seen the match with friends a couple months ago (on TV) but to see it again it was still hard.  She doesn’t realize how late it had become till she gets a low battery notice. She looks around to spot it and sees her room is completely dark, she then looks back to the screen 0134. She puts her laptop to sleep and plugs in the charger before making her way to her bed. She falls asleep before she can activate her 0800 alarm.

 

The next day Hope falls once again out of her bed, she is just still too tired to remember it. And that way is much easier to get into her wheelchair. She is used to it.

Hope’s arms are killing her, resulting in what is going to be a lazy day for her. Without her arms … she doesn’t get far. She goes to Starbucks but it takes her 3 minutes longer than usual and Hope hates it. Hope is a bit disappointed she didn’t come across Kelley at Starbucks. Once she is back home she sits in the couch and watches some baseball game.

She cancels her appointment with the physiotherapist. She gets back in her wheelchair and goes to her office. The comfy chair where she used to sit in when she was working at her desk stood in the corner of the room. She sat in her wheelchair at her desk and started working.

 

Kelley wakes up around 1400, luckily she didn’t have team training today. She slowly gets into the shower and eats breakfast or better said lunch afterwards. While she eats breakfast she takes her laptop. While she eats breakfast she goes through her mails. Most are from her friends, asking how she is doing in Seattle and how the team is. She closes them, she had been ignoring them, she was a bit disappointed she didn’t made the pro team and ended up on the reserve team. She swore to herself she would contact them once she made the pro team. She gathered some information on the nearby university and a couple minutes later she left. It didn’t took her too long to get there. Once she arrived at the university it did took her a while to find the library and to find the right books in the library. She takes a few books and sits down at a desk. It is already dark by the time Kelley makes it out of the library.

 

The next day Hope has a plan and goes to the Starbucks, hoping Kelley will be there too. She’s lucky, Kelley just ordered when she entered. “Kelley, can I talk to you for a moment” She said after she greets Kate. “Sure” Kelley walks over to a chair and sits down. “so, I have been thinking. What would you say if from no one we go on at least 2 runs a week and I train you  for 4 days a week” Kelley couldn’t believe what Hope just asked her. To learn from a legend like her, that is even more than she could have “That would be ..” Kelley was at a loss for words “awesome” she eventually manages to say “Great, so when are you free in the next weeks?” Hope asks while taking her phone. Kate brings the two ladies their coffee and smiles when they are too busy to notice it.

 

First training day. Hope has planned a 5K run as warming up exercise. They take a trail that is in the nature but still easy for Hope to cross with her hand cycle. After the run they go towards a Seattle sounders training field. Their season hasn’t started yet and Hope knows the janitor. So it is the perfect place to train. It is Hope’s first time back onto the pitch, in a wheelchair.

She sits back in her normal wheelchair. She has it all planned out. The janitor has put all the needed equipment out on the field and Hope says to Kelley what she should take and where she should place it. Kelley was surprised that Hope knew an awful lot of the field player’s game. She not only had the mentality of a keeper, she had the mentality of a keeper, a forward and a defender and maybe also the one o f a midfielder but that she couldn’t determine yet. (Kelley didn’t really know what the mentality of a midfielder is)

 

Hope’s training was hard, hard but good. Although she didn’t do any complicated exercise, Kelley’s legs were becoming heavy. After the training Kelley let herself fall down onto the grass. She needed a moment. Hope laughs and shakes her head before continuing the notes she was making. She throws a Gatorade at Kelley and sits down next to Kelley. Kelley was lying with her eys closed on the pitch, so she didn’t see Hope getting out of her wheelchair but she could hear it.

Once Hope sits on the pitch, heavily leaning upon her arms, Kelley opens her eyes. After a while she asks “Do you miss it?” “Being able to walk or playing soccer?” “I meant playing soccer …” Kelley trails off. “just when I see a game, see a ball, when I wake up, when I … “ Hope stairs at the other side of the pitch “I miss it every single day”

That is the moment Kelley knows for sure she wants to help Hope. The look Hope had in her eyes, so intense but at the same time it looked like she had given up the fight to walk again.

Hope let Kelley do some sprints while she gets herself back into her wheelchair. After the sprints Kelley hands Hope a couple things and the both of them put away the stuff they used.

That evening Kelley was still excited and wanted to tell her friends, her sister about it but she still hadn’t made the pro team yet, so she doesn’t call. Kelley slept like a baby that night, dreaming of her time with Hope. Hope on the other hand woke up numerous time, every time waking up moments after she hit the post. Around 0400 she gave up and got out of her bed. She ended up in her office and tempted to call Carli, it was 0710 hours there so she probably would be awake. But Hope didn’t know what to talk about, she didn’t want to talk about herself. So instead she made some training preparations.

 

The next couple of days all that Hope did was sleep, eat, drink coffee at Starbucks, go on a run with Kelley, most of the days she trains with Kelley and goes to physiotherapy.

2 weeks later, she had still no feeling in her legs, but Hope wasn’t going to give up. She was going to walk again even if it took her a hundred years. She re-found her will to fight her will to walk again.

Hope sees that Kelley’s game has improved, she is also a lot fitter (not that she wasn’t fit before). But the thing that is really going to improve her game is if she gets the opportunity to play with and against players. So when the next reserve team training is coming around Hope tells Kelley to play like she did these last couple of trainings with her and if it is possible she should ask the coach if she could get the opportunity to train with the pro team, to further improve. Although the coach is probably going to say no, he will keep an eye on her and eventually he will send her to the pro team. The evening before the team training Kelley goes to bed early. She wants to be well rested for the training.

 

The next day, after getting her coffee and giving Kelley some last minute advice Hope makes her way to the pool. She had said she wanted to go for a swim and her physiotherapist only would let her if he came along. Hope didn’t like it but she agreed. She arrived at the swimming pool and was directly met with some obstructions but luckily she did a lot of training (the long runs with Kelley) that made her biceps so much bigger and stronger. She got herself into one of those changing cabins but then the tricky part came. Once changed she puts away her cloths and makes her way over to pool but comes across an obstacle . There is no way she will be able to cross it if she remains seated in her wheelchair. She curses about the fact that even a modern public building isn’t properly adapted to people in a wheelchair. So Hope pulls herself up and keeps herself up with a hand on some kind of railing. With the other hand she lifts up the wheelchair and drops him around the corner over the step (that is too high for her to cross). Only leaning on her hands, while her feet drag across the floor, it takes her a lot of effort to make the next couple of feet but she makes it and let herself fall into her wheelchair. She rolls it in the direction of the pool. She puts on the brakes and sits down on the ground, with her legs in the water. Not that she can feel it. She once again checks her lower back brace, just to make sure.

Her physiotherapist is too late. She waits 5 minutes before lowering herself into the pool. She starts moving, you couldn’t really call it swimming. By the time she is halfway she hears “HOPE AMELIA SOLO, what did I tell you?” She turns around and ‘swims’ back before answering “you should have been here in time” but she says it with a smile. He jumps into the water “how did you even get passed that …?” Hope flexes her arms, but quickly lowers them before she has completely gone under. He just shakes his head.

It is a lot trickier to swim without using your legs. She not only can’t use her legs, she also has no control of their movement, resulting in the lowering of her lower body and legs. She could prevent this by wearing some kind of floaters on her ankles but then it would make it much more difficult to turn or to stay still. But with the help of her trainer things go pretty well. Mac noticed her upper body got stronger, he knew about the early morning runs but didn’t expect them to have such a big impact.

 

Hope is exhausted after her swimming session and just wants to go home and lie in the couch but she had agreed to go to Kate. So she made her way to Starbuck, already feeling her muscles were getting tired.

She had almost finished her coffee when Kelley came in. Kate makes Kelley’s coffee and brings along some brownies. The three of them sit down at a table and Kelley talks about the training. Kate needed to make some coffees from time to time for other people. Kelley did indeed ask the trainer and he indeed said no but she wasn’t sad. She had had an amazing training, the others noticed and even Julie, a veteran that never got to the pro level, told her she did well. Kelley even jokes that Hope’s trainings are harder than the training she just had. Kate makes Hope tell about her swim session and they all listen while Hope reluctantly tells the story. She doesn’t like to show her weaknesses to others so she leaves some parts out. They then ask Kate about her day but compared to their day she has had a boring one, except for that one costumer that comes in every day and wants to try all coffees, so every day he picks another one. But every day he forgets what he took the day before. Today he orders the same coffee he ordered yesterday and the day before yesterday and when Kate asked him if it was better than the ones he drunk before he prompt answered it was the best coffee he had drunk since he had started his little experiment.

 

Hope knew that if she wanted to make it back to her place on her own she couldn’t be here much longer so she said goodbye and left. Kelley wanted to leave to, she had an appointment t later today and she wanted to go over some notes before she met the specialist. But Kate stopped her. Kate wanted to know a bit more about the girl that has such a big impact in Hope’s life.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had to speed up some things. There isn't much happening in this chapter but i had to get over with this and I promise more will happen in the next chapters

A couple weeks go by and nothing really changes, Hope and Kelley still go running. Hope trainings have become even more exhausting but Kelley really likes it, she can almost feel her game improve after every single training. Hope spends some time at physiotherapy and Kelley goes to a couple more trainings with the team. Kelley noticed that as long as the training was for her Hope encourages Kelley and goes along. But when Kelley suggested they should do some exercises that would help Hope, Hope just switches topic and in the end it is Kelley that is doing an exercise while Hope sits in her chair yelling things she should improve. They still meet almost every morning at Starbucks’ and Kelley still hasn’t called home. She did send a text to prevent her sister from stepping onto a plane to her. Hope and Kelley even hung out a few times but after all this, Kelley still felt like Hope was a really private person. She noticed Hope was a bit more relaxed when it was just the two of them but there was so much more she wants to know about Hope Amelia Solo.

 

Kelley and Hope had just finished one of their trainings and went to the Starbucks. Katelaughed when she saw Kelley, "You look like you have run a double marathon and a triathlon." Kater say, Hope laughs and all Kelley can do is faintly smile. Kate made their coffee while Kelley sat down at a table, (Hope already sits down).

Kate brings them their coffee but can’t sit with them, to many other costumers. They say goodbye to Kate after they have finished their coffee. Hope laughs when she sees Kelley ‘walk’, resulting in a pouting Kelley, what only made Hope laugh harder, resulting in Kelley sitting on Hope’s lap and saying “You take me home, it is your fault I’m so tired” Hope stopped laughing, she didn’t expected this. Hope turned the wheels and made her way down the streets with Kelley still on her lap. “Where do you live?” Hope asked, not planning on letting Kelley sit on her lap for the whole way. The only response she got is a soft snoring. Hope tried to look at Kelley and she could see Kelley snuggled herself as close as possible to Hope and Kelley’s head lies in the crouch of hope’s neck. Hope smiles and just looks at Kelley for a moment.  Kelley looks way to cute while she sleeps and Hope can’t get herself to wake her. _Wait, did I really just think she’s cute?_ Hope looks at all the freckles that are all over Kelley’s face, she finds them adorable. _Adorable? Really Hope?_

She then fastens the seatbelt around her and Kelley. She arrived at her home, grateful Kelley wasn’t that heavy, she isn’t sure she would have made it otherwise. Hope rolled the wheelchair into her bedroom and stopped next to her bed. She tries to figure out how she could get Kelley onto her bed without waking her. _This would be so much easier if I just could stand up and lay her on the bed._ A couple minutes later she finally has Kelley on the bed. She rides a bit back and grabs a blanket, she spreads the blanket over Kelley (as good as she can from in her wheelchair) and looks at her for a moment before rolling out of the room.

Kelley wakes up and doesn’t really know where she is. She pushes the blanket away and looks around. She then remembers that she asked Hope for a ride home but she can’t remember them leaving the street. _Om my god, I must have fallen asleep in the wheel chair, on Hope’s lap._ Kelley closes her eyes and she can hit herself. _Great_. Once she has gathered all her courage she walks out of the bedroom, looking for Hope. She finds Hope sitting at the kitchen table, she is busy with something on her laptop.

“She sits down and says “I’m sorry for falling asleep earlier” “It’s alright” Hope says and finishes whatever she is doing. Hope’s stomach growls and Kelley knows how she can thank Hope. Kelley quickly thinks and says “Maybe I can cook for you” Hope looks up “My way to say thanks” Although Kelley really shouldn’t do that Hope likes the idea. “That would be great” she says while closing her laptop “But then we probably will need to do some grocery shopping” “I’ll drive” Kelley says with a smile. Hope looks at Kelley and cocks an eyebrow. “You’ll drive? I didn’t know you had a car” Kelley smiles and says “I don’t. You have” “And you think I’ll let you drive my car?” “Yeah” Hope looked at Kelley’s pleading face and a few minutes later they were making their way towards Hope’s car. Hope got herself into the car and Kelley puts the wheelchair in the car before taking place behind the wheel. “You sure you can drive a car?” Hope asked Kelley showed her driving license, “I’m sure” They both fastened their seatbelt and Kelley backed the car out of the driveway.

The car has a more powerful engine than the car she used to drive but Kelley handled it almost perfectly. Hope, not used to sit on the passenger’s side is a bot tense in the beginning but after a couple minutes she relaxes a bit. _She drives better than I thought._ Hope gives the directions to the supermarket she used to go to. Kelley wants to park in a spot reserved to people with disabilities but Hope tells her to park in a regular spot. Kelley parks the car between two cars, and she notices Hope gives her a look while she steps out of the car but isn’t really sure why. Kelley takes the wheelchair out of the trunk and pushes it to the passenger’s side, only to realize she parked the car too close to the other car so she is unable to get the wheelchair between the two cars to Hope. She can see Hope laughing in the side mirror. Kelley puts the chair back into the trunk and mentally kicks herself before getting back into the car to park the car somewhere else so she will be able to get the wheelchair next to the passenger’s door. Hope is still laughing when Kelley sits down, Kelley looks at Hope who tries to stop laughing but fails miserably. Kelley parks the car a few yards further, with a lot of space next to the passenger’s side. She once again steps out of the car, gets the wheelchair out of the trunk and takes it to Hope.

They ‘walk’ a few moments later to the entrance. They haven’t made it far before Hope realizes that it wasn’t such a smart idea to go grocery shopping with Kelley. Kelley had already steered the shopping cart into a grumpy old man who was not happy with that. She had also put the milk and eggs into the wrong cart, she argued with some kid about who would get the last squirrel shaped Chocolate bar. Kelley eventually won by racing for it, the first one to the beautiful lady with the cocked eyebrow in the wheelchair would get the chocolate squirrel. Kelley took off before she finished her sentence, leaving the boy behind. Off course Kelley made it to Hope first, Hope just shook her head and the disappointed boy arrived seconds later. He forgot about it all when Hope handed him a chocolate wolf. "You really are beautifull" He says before taking off towards his mom and Hope looked at Kelley. "What? I didn't say that." Kelley replies and shrugs before looking to the squirrel, trying to hide the fact that she is blushingl. Hope smiles and tries another way  “Really? For some chocolate.” is all she said. “Not just some chocolate, this in is a chocolate squirrel” Hope repeated “really?” Kelley carefully puts the squirrel into the cart and pushes it forward.

Eventually it came in handy Kelley came along, a lot of things were either too low or too high for Hope to be able to reach it. And Kelley pushed the grocery cart, Hope wouldn’t be able to do it. But at the end they ended up with at least half of the cart filled with things Hope wouldn’t have bought if she was on her own but there were only so many times she could see no to Kelley. Hope paid for all of it and they make their way back to Hope’s car. Kelley tries to spilt the bill but Hope insisted on her paying it all, after all it were her groceries. Kelley then suggest she cooks dinner, Hope doesn’t say no to this, her kitchen is still not adapted to her new limitations and it would be nice to eat something else then take-out.

Kelley makes her way back and once she arrives at Hope’s house she bans her from the kitchen, She can’t cook when she has people watching her every move. Hope goes to her office. Kelley puts all the groceries onto the countertop. She opens the cabinets (they are almost all empty), looking for the right place to store everything. She also opens the fridge and notices it is empty for the biggest part, only some expired food and bottles of wine are in it. Kelley takes out the expired food and throws it away. It lands on top of a lot of take- out boxes but it takes Kelley a few more moments to put everything together. She realizes that Hope is not able to cook in this kitchen, everything is too high for Hope (since she sits in the wheelchair). She must have ordered Take-out ever since she ended up in the wheelchair. Kelley is glad she offered to cook.

Hope suddenly realizes she hasn’t used the kitchen for over a couple months and decides to go over and try to cover up that fact. But once she arrives there she knows Kelley probably already discovered that fact. “What are you doing here? I thought I told you I can’t cook when people are watching me” “Well first off, this is my kitchen so I can come in here and second, people are not watching you, it is just me” Kelley just shakes and continues cutting the vegetables. Hope comes closers and asks what she is preparing. “You will see when it is ready” Kelley answered. Hope wasn’t satisfied with this answered and pulled herself up on the countertop so she could look at what Kelley is preparing. She only leans on her hands, her feet dangling a few inches above the ground but she is able to look in the pan and pots to see that Kelley is making a simple but deliciously looking dish.

“What are you still doing here?” Kelley asks without turning around. No answer, Kelley knows Hope is still there, she didn’t hear her leave so she turns around and drops the knife she was using. She didn’t expect to see Hope standing in front of her, it took her a moment to realize Hope wasn’t really standing but was rather keeping her upright with her hands. Kelley also isn’t used to Hope being bigger then she is. They stare in each other eyes, and Kelley isn’t really sure but it feels like Hope is leaning in, trying to close the gap between the two of them so Kelley decides to meet her halfway. Just before their lips touch each other, Hope’s arms give up on her and she falls down into her wheelchair. The moment is gone and once Kelley realizes that she quickly bows down to pick the knife she dropped back up and turns around continue cutting the tomatoes. _Fuck, was this really just happening, I could have sworn she was going to kiss me._ Kelley just wishes that Hope could have held on just a second longer but maybe it is for the best, maybe she was just all imagining this and then things would have been awkward between them. And that was the last thing Kelley wanted.

If she hadn’t turned around so quick and had taken the time to look into Hope’s eyes then she would have known her last thoughts are completely incorrect.  Hope still wanted to kiss her but since she could get level with Kelley she hoped Kelley would bow down so Hope still could kiss her but instead of doing that Kelley turned around and continued cutting the stupid tomatoes. The moment Kelley turns around something breaks in her. _Maybe I read the signals wrong, I really thought she was into me, but maybe she isn’t._ Hope bows her head and goes back to her office, she needs some time before she will be able to face Kelley again and be able to pretend like that just didn’t happen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had to speed up some things. There isn't much happening in this chapter but i had to get over with this and I promise more will happen in the next chapters.


	4. Chapter 4

Kelley freaks out when Hope left the kitchen. _Fuck, what the hell just happened._ Her mind is going 1000 mph and she puts down the knife before she loses some fingers. Sure she liked Hope but she never expected Hope to be into girls. _She probably was just trying to get back in her wheelchair because her arms were getting to tired and off course you had to think she was going to kiss you. …_  
  


But then after a while Kelley started to doubt, maybe Hope was into her, the look she had into her eyes just before she fell into her chair wasn’t one of I can’t hold on any longer, it was one of passion.(At least that is what Kelley hopes it was)

“Just fuck it” Kelley says to herself and makes her way over to Hope’s office, without slowing down she pulls Hope wheelchair back and turns it so she is facing Hope. Hope looks questioning at her. Kelley bows down and kisses up. It takes her a few seconds to realize Hope isn’t kissing her. _Now I totally screwed this up_ Kelley thinks and is about to pull back when Hope places her hand on Kelley’s neck preventing her from pulling away.

After a few more seconds Kelley pulls away and with the biggest smile on her face she says “Dinner is ready” Hope laughs, _of all the this she could have said she chooses to say ‘dinner is ready’_ , and she follows Kelley to the kitchen. Actually dinner wasn’t ready, Kelley never finished it but she also forgot to turn off the stove so to prevent the food from burning she had to go back. Kelley finished dinner and this time Hope stayed in her wheelchair.

 

After dinner they snuggled up on the couch and watched some movie. Kelley started drawing random patters onto Hope’s leg. Hope didn’t respond and after a while Kelley remembered Hope had no feeling in her legs. Kelley snuggles a bit closer to Hope. Hope looks questioning at Kelley. Kelley just smiles and looks back at the TV.

 

Eventually Kelley stayed over. She wanted to sleep on the couch but Hope told her they could share the bed. It is big enough for the two of them. Kelley gives Hope a kiss and goes to the bathroom, Hope told her should could grab some of Hope’s clothes. Kelley grabbed an old Keeper kit from Hope. Hope cringed a bit when she saw it. It reminded her to old times, to times where she could still walk, where she could still play. Kelley was, not surprisingly, asleep by the time Hope made it out of the bathroom. Hope lies in bed, she gently kisses Kelley’s forehead and rolls to her side of the bed. _What are you doing? Kelley is just an innocent little girl, you will hurt her and she doesn’t deserve that._ Hope falls asleep a while later and is still worried about what just happened.

The next moment Kelley was awoken by a loud bang. She quickly looked to Hope’s side of the bed (empty). Kelley rolled to Hope’s side and looked over the side. She saw Hope lying on the floor, next to the bed. “You’re all right?” “Yeah, I just forget.” Hope takes a moment before adding “Again” It takes Kelley a minute to understand what Hope says. she looks at the clock 0620. “Why are you up? It is 6.20 am” “We are going for a run, remember.” Kelley totally forgot. Hope laughed and pulled herself up in her wheelchair. “Can’t we just skip this one?” “you haven’t even made the pro team and already want to skip a training.” Hope said with a smile. Kelley pouted and Hope knew she was going to give in. “We can stay in a little bit longer, but we are going on that run.” Kelley smiles and rolls back to her side of the bed. Hope pulls herself into the bed.

Kelley sees Hope looking at the Keeper jersey. “You will be back” Kelley tries to sound convincing but she knows Hope is giving up. “Come on, time for our run” “What, that was only like 50 seconds” “No come on, But since you had such a hard training yesterday we can do a shorter run” Kelley is not sure if that was meant sarcastic or not. “Okay”  


Kelley grabs a short and shirt from Hope, hers are dirty and sweaty. Hope gives her a look but doesn’t say anything. A few minutes later they are outside, Hope in her hand cycle and Kelley in her running shoes. They take some path down towards the lake. Kelley figures it should be quite difficult for Hope to take this path with her bike, there are a lot of rocks and branches on the ground. They get to the water without any incidents. Kelley walks towards the water and touches it with her hands, it is cold. Kelley turns around and looks at Hope, she has this look in her eyes, like she is thinking about something from the past. “I used to come here with Leo, he would jump into the water and just enjoy it all while I did some exercises” _Right, she has a dog._ Kelley had seen Leo in one of those Studio 90 fragments, but she hadn’t seen him around the house. “Where is he now?” “I gave him to Carli, obvious I can’t take care of him right now” Kelley nodded, not really sure what to say.

“Ready for the trip back up?” Hope asks “Yeah it isn’t that hard” Kelley says “you sure, it is pretty steep if you think it is too steep we can take another path but that one is longer” Hope says, speaking from experience “You just fear it will be too steep for you to … see you up there” Kelley says and takes off Hope quickly leaves, after a hundred yards or something like that Hope passed Kelley and accelerated once she past Kelley. Kelley just yells “I will catch you before the top” “You wish” Hope yells back, knowing Kelley will not even make it to the top. After a while Hope wasn’t sure she would make it. Her arms were burning and then a phone rang. Hope stopped, she was pretty sure that it was not her phone. She looked around to see if there was a phone on the ground, nope there wasn’t. Hope noticed the sound came out of her backpack. She opened it and it was Kelley’s phone that was ringing.

Hope turned around and as fast as she could she made her way back down towards Kelley, hoping she would make it in time. She spots Kelley standing still, trying to catch her breath. “Yeah yeah, you were right, no need to  rub it in” “I wasn’t going to do that, your phone is ringing” Kelley looked up and only now seemed to notice the ringing she took her phone and answered “Hi” still trying to catch her breath. “yeah, no it’s all right, I was just running and …” “really?” Kelley got really excited “No I’m not too tired” “I’ll be there” Kelley squealed once she disconnected the call and Hope was surprised by this all, but this also confirmed her last night’s thoughts.  


“WE MADE IT” Kelley yells, and Hope knows what she is talking about. “That was Laura, she expects me at the training” Hope smiled, she was happy for Kelley.

They make their way back up, but they walk, Hope doesn’t want Kelley to be too tired and …

Once back Hope is out of the shower Kelley realizes she has only 15 minutes left to make it in time. “Take my car” Hope says “No” “How else are you going to make it in time? Running?” “All right, but I’ll bring it back after the training” “I won’t be here, I have physio so park it near your place, it will eventually land back here. It is not like I can drive it anyways.” Kelley accepts the key “Can I ask you for one more thing?” Hope nodded “Can I borrow another shirt and shorts? Mine are still dirty from out training” “Off course, you know where they are” Hope’s phone rang so Kelley quickly ran towards Hope closet and grabbed some shorts, making sure there wasn’t a number one on and then grabbed a shirt, figuring she would be safe as long as she didn’t pick one of Hope’s official jerseys.

She then grabs her bag and wants to say goodbye to Hope but she is calling and it sounds serious so Kelley runs outside, throws her bag on the passenger’s seat and takes off.

Kelley parks the car around the corner, not knowing if one of the national team players might recognize it. She decides to change in the car, that way she might gain some valuable seconds. She has already put the shorts on and is about to put the shirt on when she noticed something is printed on the back. She takes a better look SOLO. “Damnit” she then looks in her bag, her t-shirt is all dirty and smells so she has no other option. She turns Hope’s shirt inside out and puts it on, hoping the others won’t notice.

Kelley grabs her cleats and bag and runs towards the training fields. Some players are already doing some warming up exercises, others are talking. Kelley drops her bag and sits on the ground so she can put on her cleats. She just finished tying her shoelaces when a ball rolls her way, she looks up and someone waves, she takes the shot, it lands almost perfectly.

After the girl passed the ball around she motioned with her hand for Kelley to come over. Kelley makes sure her bag is out of the way and jogs towards the girl.

“nice shot” the blond haired girl says once Kelley is in hearing range. “Thanks” Kelley says once she reached that girl “You must be the new girl, I’m Pinoe” “Nice to meet you Pinoe” I reply a bit nervous, still can’t believe I will play alongside Pinoe “I’m Kelley” In meantime the coach and the others gathered around them

“You do know that you are wearing your shirt inside out” Pinoe says loud enough for everyone to hear it. “Yeah the label was itching and I like it better this way” I try to say as smooth as possible. _thank god the letters are printed on the shirt and not sewn otherwise they would be able to read OLOS on the back of my shirt._

Pinoe looks at me and someone else starts laughing We both look towards the person that is laughing “We would have thought you would get competition Pinoe?” Now everyone laughs Pinoe tries to counter “pff, like anyone could ever compete with ME” Laura interrupts the little banter. Kelley focuses on whatever Laura is saying but she did catch the look Pinoe gave the player with the brown curly hair.

The training was good, it was almost as physically exhausting as Hope’s trainings but the thing that was trickier with this training was she was training with a team. She needed to keep an eye on the other players and communicate with them.

After training some players came up to her to say she really played good, she wanted to grab her bag and join them but Laura called her back.

“You played really good today and I would like to see you play when you didn’t already do a total work out” Kelley blushed a bit and smiled “Do you have time to do some tests?” Kelley didn’t have plans for later today so she agreed on the test, on one condition. That they took into account she did already two trainings so she wasn’t that fit any more. “What changed?” Kelley looked questioning at Laura “What did you do to get noticed by your trainer and to improve your game, if you had this level than they would have accepted you on the pro team from the beginning.” “Apart from wearing my shirt inside out?” Kelley joked “I trained a lot” “On your own?” “At the beginning yes but after a while I started training with a friend, It is actually thanks to her I’m at this level” “Is she part of the reserve team?” “Nope” They walked inside the building “So what kind of tests do I need to do?” Kelley asked hoping to would switch topic. “First the regular, some drugs and blood test and some other medical test, we will do the physical another time”

Kelley passed all the tests with flying colors and sat down with Laura to talk about her potential role this season.

 

By the time she made it back to her apartment she was exhausted, mentally and physically. She forced herself to eat something, although even bringing the food to her mouth was almost too hard to do. She sets her alarm and falls asleep in her bed a few seconds after.


	5. Chapter 5

A few days had gone bye and Kelley hadn’t seen Hope anymore, they did text from time to time but that was all. She was just too busy with all the Seattle Reign things. She even barely made it to the Starbucks, Kate was glad to see her but there were a lot of costumers so she couldn’t talk very long. It wasn’t till she read the things Kate wrote on her cup ( _The girl who can make Hope laugh_ ) she realized all this, she made her way back to her place and decided to bring the car back. Hoping Hope would be at home.

She arrived at Hope’s place and knocked on the door. It took a while but eventually she heard someone making their way to the front door. Hope opened the door, surprised to see Kelley standing in front of her.

“I figured I should give you your car back” Kelley said while turning around and pointing to the car. “Thanks, so how is training” Hope asked Kelley wanted to start talking but Hope invited her inside the house, so Kelley also could sit down.  


 Kelley talks about the training and for the first time since she last saw Hope, she notices how much she missed the keeper .She missed their runs, their trainings and other moments they shared. Hope noticed Kelley was somewhere else with her mind and she had a pretty good idea on what Kelley was thinking.

“So when does the superstar has got time for me?” She asks with a smirk “ I have always time for you” Kelley twirls her hand around and adds “except when I’m busy”

Somehow they end up ordering take out and watching a movie. Then it is already late and Hope doesn’t want to let Kelley walk all by herself in the dark to her place so she insists Kelley sleeps here. Hope wants to get back in her wheelchair so she can go to her bathroom to change for the night but Kelley stops her. She knows this is probably not the best time to talk about it but they will need to talk about it eventually so she decides to get it over with.

Hope looks at Kelley first questioning but after she sees the look in Kelley’s eyes she already knows what Kelley wants to talk about.

 

Hope softly lays her hand on Kelley’s thigh and starts talking

It was all that Kelley could have dreamed for but also all she could never have hoped for.

Hope waited a second to see Kelley’s reaction before leaning in. She kissed Kelley softly on the lips and the gets herself into her wheelchair and goes towards her bedroom.

“Hey, you can’t just leave a lady like this” Kelley yells while chasing after Hope. Hope turns around and smirks “A lady, you?” “Yes” Kelley says and sits down on Hope’s lap. She cups Hope’s head with her two and softly kisses Hope.

Things heat up, but they haven’t much space to manoeuver so Hope manages to get the both of them into the bedroom. Kelley stands up but her lips stay in contact with Hope’s lips. For Hope it is a bit trickier to get out of her wheelchair. She manages to sit on the bed, but without being able to use her hands to steady her, she already quickly falls onto her back. Kelley follows but knows they are just making out, she not even sure if Hope has feeling down there.

In the end Kelley falls asleep snuggled into Hope.

 

“mmm” Kelley mumbles, not wanting to wake up already “Come on Kell, wake up” “Why?” Kelley asks while turning around, keeping her eyes shut. “We have training remember, got to make sure you can keep up in the pro team” Kelley totally forgot. Hope smiled at the sight in front of her. “Can’t we just skip this one?” “You just the pro team and already want to skip training.” Hope said with a smile. Kelley pouted and Hope knew that once again she was going to give in. “We can stay in a little bit longer, but we are going on that run.” Kelley smiles and rolls back to her side of the bed. About 15 minutes later they get out of bed, Kelley still half sleeping. They made a pit stop at the Starbucks before they went to the training complex.

This time the training was a bit different, Hope had looked at the Reign schedule and roster and tried to prepare Kelley as much as possible for the upcoming game. So if Kelley received the opportunity to play she will know how to beat the opponent. The training was intense, but Kelley loved the burning feeling in her legs and arms afterwards, it made her feel alive.

 

 

 

GAME DAY (Seattle Reign vs Chicago Red Stars) Hope decided to go to the game, she … she sits before her closet and is wondering what she should wear. She doesn’t want to be noticed but she also knows that if you try too hard to not get noticed the more likely you get noticed.

She arrives at the stadium and places herself between the others in a wheelchair. The team walks onto the pitch, she sees Boxxy, Pinoe and Syd. Kelley is on the bench but Hope knows they will put her in. She is just too good to be benched, but is she better than the starting eleven?

 

The Seattle Reign keeper does a good job but Hope sees she still needs to learn a lot, thinking that that should be her she was supposed to be starting Keeper of the Seattle Reign. She tries to block out the thought and when she can feel all her muscles tense she tries to focus on something else. Then she realizes she felt _all_ her muscles tense, she looked at her feet and tried to get that anger back up. She could move her feet like half an inch, she was smiling and although it hurt like a bitch she was smiling like an idiot.

She feels the others looking at her so she leans back and watches the game before she draws too much attention. The referee blows the whistle indicating the end of the first half. Hope notices a young girl sitting next to her, the others went to get some drinks or so. The girl looked at her but seemed too shy to ask whatever was on her mind. So Hope looked at her and smiled. “What do you think of the match?” Hope asks, not really knowing what to talk about. “I haven’t really watched that many games but it think they could do better.” “New fan?” “Yeah, it is actually my first game. I didn’t like to watch sports, knowing I can’t do them but then one of my friends told me about this keeper, I don’t really know her name maybe you know her, she had an accident last year in a game and she is paralyzed and it might me stupid but I wanted to know what happened to her. I know it is not really possible but I wanted her to get better and hoped to see her play today, guess she still is paralyzed. …” Hope was speechless, she never thought she would still be a role model for some. “What about you?” She asked “Is this your first game?” “no it’s not my first. I have been around for quite some time” “What do you think about the game?” “I think they should bring in number 19, she is really good” The girl looked in the booklet, Hope had go through it earlier and knew there wasn’t much written about the number 19. “Why? It doesn’t look like she has played much” “She just joined the team, and I have seen her train, I bet the coach will put her in at the second half and she might even score a goal” The girl asks some more questions about the game and the players walk back onto the field.

50th minute, it is still 0-0 and Hope looks at Kelley, Kelley looks back and smiles. Hope gives a thumbs up, seconds later the coach calls Kelley. Kelley stands at the sideline, ready to be subbed in. She looks at Hope, Hope can see she has good nerves, her first time in a pro league soccer match. She just signals to not get too excited and keep it basic. A couple seconds after Kelley is subbed in the girl looks at Hope and asks “How did you know?” “I know the game pretty well”  


Hope was almost right, Kelly didn’t score but she did assist on the lone goal score by Syd. The referee blows the whistle, indicating the end of the game, all Kelley wants to do is run towards Hope and celebrate with her but she knows that’s not a good idea. Kelley gets a few compliments and shakes hands with the opponents before walking of the pitch to shower.

“Did you like this half better?” “Yes, it was actually quite awesome. Are you going to be here next game?” “I’ll try” “I’ll keep a seat” With that the girl turns around and makes her way towards a group of people, probably her family.

Once at home Hope felt she was in more pain, but pain means that she can feel so there is no way she is going to take a painkiller. Kelley was talking about the game and she could tell that Hope was also focused on something else. She also looked like she was in pain. “Hope, what’s wrong?” “Something happened at the game” “What happened?” Kelley asked almost immediately. Instead of saying what happened Hope looked at her feet and tried to move them. I hurt as hell but she managed to move them for half an inch. Kelley looked down and saw the movement It took Kelley  a moment to realize it but once she did she squealed and hugged Hope and she was almost more happy than Hope was. What happened? Do you have all the feeling back in your legs? Can you move them…” Kelley had like a thousand questions for Hope. And Hope would try to answer them but she knew she probably didn’t know the answer to most of them.

.The next day, Kelley says Hope should call her doctor, Hope argues and says she has an appointment later this week and that she will tell it than.

5 minutes later Hope is calling her doctor.  


“Babe when do you have to go in?” Hope asks Kelley. Kelley smiles for a moment before answering “ around 4pm” “Can you bring me to the hospital? Last time I took the bus and that didn’t go so well” “Off course” Kelley was still smiling about Hope calling her babe she didn’t really heard the last part.

 

Once in the hospital, they have to wait to sign up Hope. Kelley manages to get Hope telling her bus story. (Somewhere on the way to the hospital she remembered what Hope said at home) “When I got to the stop and saw the bus arrive I knew this wasn’t going to be easy. It was clearly not adapted to people in a wheelchair. The gap between the bus and where I sit is too big and there is a too big height difference. The driver looked apologetic at me and asked if he can help me. I said I could do it on my own. I needed to get out of the wheelchair and sit on the ground. After I placed my legs with my hands into a normal position I picked up the wheelchair and put it inside the bus. I then had to get myself into the bus, with only the use of my arms. Once I sat on the floor of the bus I pulled myself into the wheelchair. I mean, you should have seen the look on the other passengers faces” Hope shakes her head and laughs at the remembrance of that adventure

Once I stand in front if the line I’m happy Kelley came with me. I notice the counter is way too high, if I sit in front of it I would face a wooden wall. So before the people in front of us end I hand the documents over to Kelley and tell her what she needs to say. She looks questioning but once it is our turn and I roll forward she sees my problem. A few minutes later we take the elevator up to the 5th floor. It is silent, Kelley doesn’t really know what to say. It must be hard for Hope to come across all those things that remember her about her limitations, about her body that isn’t like it used to be.

They sit in a waiting room and Kelley scrolls through some messages on her smartphone. Hope makes a Sudoku. A nurse calls Hope’s name, Hope looks at Kelley and Kelley nods. Hope leaves the waiting area and follows the nurse. Once Hope is out of sight she puts away her phone and sighs. She hopes that whatever the doctor says, it will be positive news.


	6. Chapter 6

She gets into some kind the office, the doctor shakes her hand and sits opposite of her at a bureau. He first is busy with something on his computer, he then turns the screen and points with the tip of his pen to a few areas. He says a bunch of words and the conclusion is that he still believes the she is only temporary paralyzed but he has no idea how much longer it will last. He doesn’t guarantee that she will ever walk again but since she is very athletic he gives her a chance, there is nothing on the scans that points to permanent damage. Hope finds it a bit weird he didn’t ask her first if something changed so when he finally stops talking she says “I can move my feet, only a little bit” She has to repeat it before the doc hears her and she has to prove it before he believes her. He does some extra test and plans some more scans later this week.

He is surprised to see how muscular Hope has become once again. He tells her to continue her physiotherapy and to keep training, it all might help her getting all the feeling in her legs back.

They say goodbye and he wishes her best of luck. She goes back to the waiting area to pick up Kelley. On her way back to Hope’s place Kelley asks Hope about what she should expect from the Reign.

Once back at Hope’s place Kelley has to get to her place to pick up some things before she heads to the Reign headquarters.

 

Hope stays home, her legs are killing her, and she is also disappointed. Somehow she would have thought that she would be able to do more, she couldn’t even move them for more than half an inch. She can’t get yesterday’s conversation out of her head so instead of not doing much here she grabs her laptop and some other stuff, puts it in a backpack and leaves.

‘I was about to call the EMTS on you” “On me? Why?” “No way, someone like you can survive without coffee for that long. Or they would have to check on your withdrawals” Hope smirked “It only has been a couple of days” “what happened with you, did you just hear yourself? The Hops Solo I know isn’t able to live for three days without coffee” Kate said with a smile … They catch up for a while until other costumers started coming in, which was after about 2 minutes. Hope moved a chair away so she could sit at the table, she takes her laptop, pen and notebook.

Hope works through 2 cappuccino’s and even some brownies. At some point the next barista comes in and Kate finally has time to ask all the questions she has been wanting to ask. She sits down next to Hope and it takes Hope a moment to realize. “What are you working on?” “Something I should have done months ago” Kate stood up and was about to walk away, if it was that important she was not going to interrupt Hope. “But it won’t hurt if it takes me a day more to finish it.” “you sure?” “yes” Kate sits back down.

 

A few days later, Hope still couldn’t do much more with her legs and it was killing her. “Come on, grump ass. Get your wheels moving” Hope looks up, confused. Kelley is standing in front of her and is carrying 2 bags. Hope narrows her eyes and asks “what are you planning on doing?” “You will see, come on” Kelley said and made sure she was out of reach when she added “Hopey”.

“Where are we going?” Hope asks once Kelley has pulled out of the driveway “You will see” They arrived at a military base and Hope really had no idea why or what they are going to do. Kelley stopped the car and showed her ID card to the guard, she asked Hope to give her ID. The guard let them enter the base and it looked like Kelley knew where to go. She parked the car in front of some building. Kelley brings the wheelchair to Hope and Kelley takes the bags out of the trunk while Hope pulls herself into the wheelchair. Hope follows Kelley into the building.

They waited for a door to open and Hope asked “are you going to tell me what we are doing here?” “I will. After we get changed.” Kelley pushed the door open and pointed to the cabin for Hope to change. Hope grabbed her bag and headed towards the cabin. Once she was inside and locked the door she opened the bag and was surprised to only see a sports bra, compression shorts and normal shorts. _What is she planning on doing?_ Kelley was already waiting for her once Hope left the cabin, Kelley took Hope’s bag and walked away, Hope followed her. “Are you in the army?” Kelley laughed, “No I’m not and I might be wise to not say that ever again in this base. This is a naval base, not an army post” Hope just looks at her like, how is she supposed to know that.

They walk around the corner and Hope sees a swimming pool. “What is so special about this pool that it is not just a pool and we are not only going to swim in this pool” Ok, now Hope was really confused. Kelley walked towards a man that was busy with checking some equipment Kelley talked a bit with that man, it looked like they knew each other for ever.

“you sure you still know how to do this?” He asks “I am better than most of your students” Kelley said, He laughed, knowing that was true and walked away. “we are going to dive” Kelley said and to a step to the right so Hope could see the oxygen tanks. “We are going to do what?” “Scuba dive” Kelley said like it was the most normal thing in the world. But for her it was, her dad is a navy fighter pilot and they were stationed for quite some time near a marine diving base. She learned to dive at the age of 10 and like she said to _Bear_ she is better than most of these kids that sign up to become a navy diver, even after they have completed their boot camp. Not Kelley checked the equipment while Hope was deciding if Kelley was joking. “All right” She clapped her hands and looks at Hope “I need you to get out of this wheelchair and into this pool.” Hope still wasn’t sure if she could trust Kelley in this or not but she got out of her wheelchair and sad down on the ground, with her legs in the water. It was the first time in a pool in a long time and it was also the first time in a pool after she was able to move her feet again. She could feel the water touching her legs, not in all places and she didn’t felt the pressure as it should be but it was a start. Kelley explained all the features and jumped into the water. It was the shallow part of the water, now Hope was sitting on the edge of the pool she could look into the water and could see there were some structures underwater. Kelley waited for Hope to get into the water.

Once Hope did Kelley pulled the vest and oxygen tank into the water. She helped Hope putting it on. After once again going over all the features she told Hope to go underwater and just take a couple of breaths. Kelley held Hope and looked her in the eye. “I know that I come over as this child that takes nothing serious but I know what I’m doing. Trust me, you will be safe” “I sometimes do think you are this child who has way too much energy but it is also one of the things I love about you, I love how you can just be fascinated by squirrels or how you can just be happy with just small things  like the other day in the park. But that is one of the things I love about you” She looked Kelley in the eye “And for the record I do trust you”, one last kiss. Hope puts on the dive goggles and air mask and sinks. Kelley quickly puts on the diving goggles and goes underwater. She makes it in time to see Hope take her first breath underwater, she breathes shallow and fast. Kelley touches her with one hand and looks at her, with the other hand she signals to slow down her breathing. Hope takes a few slower breathes and Kelley has to go back up, she isn’t wearing her vest and oxygen tank yet. Kelley signals that it is time to go back up. They resurface and once takes out the mouthpiece Kelley can see her smile. “How is it to breathe underwater?” “Weird” “Do you want to go further?” “Yeah, but I would like to go into that sub” Hope said eagerly Kelley smiled and put on the vest and oxygen tank. A few seconds later they went back underwater. 

The dive towards the sub is a bit slower than Kelley normally does, since Hope can only use her hands to move. Kelley can see that it does scare Hope a bit to be so deep below the surface but after a while Hope relaxes. Kelley stopped swimming and looked at Hope, she was freely moving around, without limitations.

They go inside the submarine and Kelley helps Hope into a special dry room where they can breathe normally (without their masks). But the downside on this room is that Hope is once again limited in what she is capable of doing.

“Do you like it?” Kelley asks?” “I love it, it is really cool” Hope looks around, they are in the ‘control room’ of the sub. “So how do you got into this place?” “My dad was in the navy and the guy you saw earlier, bear was his roommate at Annapolis (Naval Academy) and Bear was stationed in a base near our house, he taught me to dive when I was 10.

“ready to go back up?” “yes” They left the sub and stayed underwater for another half an hour and then slowly came back up. Kelley smiles glad she could make Hope a bit happier “Thanks” Hope says and softly kisses Kelley, hoping she can convey her love and gratitude with that kiss.

Hope almost fell asleep on the way back to her house her entire body was tired but she loved it. It was a long time since she felt that way. Once back home Hope told Kelley she was going to take a bath. Kelley dropped their stuff in the laundry room, she would take care of that later tonight or tomorrow morning. Hope got herself into the bathroom, only to realize she was too tired to get herself into the bath and way too tired to get herself back into the wheelchair after her bath. She went to look for Kelley and found her in the laundry room. Hope really hated doing this but her body was just exhausted. “Can you help me?” Kelley looked at hope, she looked so fragile, vulnerable. “Off course” Kelley answered She followed Hope into the bathroom, she could see it takes Hope a lot more effort to get ahead. She wanted to help Hope by pushing the wheelchair but that would only make feel Hope even more useless.

Kelley made sure Hope had taken some cloths with her to wear afterwards. She then helped Hope undress, although this was going to be the first time she was going to see Hope completely naked she tried not to stare too much. Off course she looked at the tattoo on Hope’s chest but she was not staring disrespectfully at Hope. All that Hope could see was love and care. “Thanks” Hope says once she sits in the bath “Will you join me?” “You sure?” Kelley asked Hope nodded. Kelley quickly ran outside to get some clothes. She undresses quickly and notices Hope is looking at her, Kelley smiles shyly and steps into the bath. This is something new for Kelley, sure she has taken showers with someone else but a bath, no, never.

 

 

The next week was very hectic, Kelley was gone for a few days. She and the others of the Reign traveled to Chicago for the game against the red stars. Hope spends a lot of time in the Starbucks (when Kate is the barista) and she pushes herself in the physiotherapy, hoping she will have more feeling in her legs when Kelley comes back. But unfortunately, she isn’t able to do much more by the time Kelley comes back.

 

A few days after Kelley got back

Kelley just finished some power training at a gym nearby her place when her phone rang. Kelley picked it up, expecting it was her sister or mom that was calling but was surprised to see Hope’s name on the screen. She accepted the call

“Ke.ll…ey,  co..me t..o “ Hope barely could speak “my ….. pl…a… ce..” Kelley was worried “Hope what’s wrong?” She asks while quickly packing her bag. “I…… can’t……………. br…eathe..” Hope barely managed to say. Kelley was already outside and on her bike. She could hear Hope breathe, barely and hurried towards Hope’s house, she hoped she was there, she wasn’t sure. She jumped off her bike and yelled “HOPE”, no answer. She tried the front door, locked, luckily she has a key.

She found Hope on the floor, she wasn’t really sure how Hope had fallen but it was clear she had trouble breathing. Hope had trouble breathing and she tried to swallow to say something but nothing came out. Kelley held Hope’s hand. Hope had clearly trouble breathing.  Kelley picked Hope up and was glad she had been training a lot so she was strong enough to do that. She puts Hope in her wheelchair and looks to where Hope points, car keys. Kelley picks them up, getting what Hope tried to say and pushes the wheelchair outside. It was the first time since Hope’s accident that someone else pushed her wheelchair. She closes the front door and manages to get Hope into the car. She gets the wheelchair into the car. She drives as fast as is allowed and makes sure to keep an eye on Hope, she is getting worse. Kelley parks the car and gets the wheelchair out and puts Hope into the wheelchair, she runs (with the wheelchair and Hope) into the emergency entrance. Immediately a doctor and 2 nurses come her way, she says what she knows and Hope is taken away through some doors that Kelley isn’t allowed to go through. It took Kelley a moment to realize what just happened, she was in shock. Eventually she slides down against a wall and sits on the floor, a tear rolling down her cheek. She doesn’t know how long she had been sitting there when a nurse bends down and pulls her up.

The nurse leads her to a chair. Kelley sits down and wipes away her tears. The nurse leaves and comes backs with a form Kelley needs to fill in. Most questions are medical questions about Hope, questions Kelley doesn’t know the answer to. Kelley fills in what she knows, it isn’t much, and hands back the form. It feels like ages have gone by, by the time the doctor reappears. He says a lot of words but the only word Kelley hears and remembers is “coma”. Everything that follows goes by in a haze. She then follows some nurse to Hope’s room. Kelley freezes when she walks into the room and sees Hope lying in a bed, with a lot of tubes connected to her.

The nurse steps out of the room, giving them some privacy. Kelley sits down on the chair next to Hope’s bed. Kelley grabs Hope hand, somehow that calms her down. Another tear rolls down her cheek.

She doesn’t really know how but this woman, whom she only has known for less than 3 months, has become so important to her. She can’t image her life without her early morning runs with Hope, the trainings, the uncountable amount of coffees they have drunk together, the trainings. Without Hope falling out of bed when she once again forgets it or without Hope letting her sit on her lap so Hope can bring both of the home when Kelley is too tired. … _Why would they put someone in a coma on purpose?_ She just didn’t understand.

 


	7. Chapter 7

The nurse came back in after a couple of hours and told Kelley it was time to go home. Kelley reluctantly left the room, but not before she gave Hope a kiss (the nurse had already left) and she told Hope she would come back tomorrow. There was no way she was going to say goodbye. Kelley walked towards Hope car and once in the car she took a moment before starting the engine and making her way back to Hope’s house.

She parked to car on the driveway and went inside the house. The doctors had asked her some things, so she decided to go inside and hopefully find that information. She was lucky Hope wrote all her medical stuff down on some paper that lies on Hope’s desk. Kelley takes a picture of the document and sits down in the couch. She doesn’t know how long she had been sitting there when her phone rang. She took it and a tear fell onto the screen, she also didn’t know she had been crying. She wipes away the tears and takes a breath before accepting the call.

“”Kelley I know you are busy with the pro team but I actually thought you would call more frequent now, not less” the person says but stops talking when she hears Kelley sniffling “Kell, what’s wrong” Kelley can’t keep it anymore and she tells everything, almost everything. After hearing all this Erin wants to hop on the first flight to Seattle but Kelley tells her not to.

Kelley ends the call but not before she made a promise to call everyday (till Hope is all right). She falls asleep on the couch a couple minutes later.

 

She wakes up a couple hours later, to the ringing of her phone. _Not again Erin,_ Kelley takes her phone, it is not Erin who is calling her, it is the alarm to leave for training. The training finishes before she is allowed back with Hope so she figures she should go and try to clear her mind.

She goes towards Hope’s room and takes some shorts and a shirt, this time making sure nothing leads back to Hope. Once she has everything she jogs towards the car.

Like always Kelley is the first one to arrive. She is ending her warming-up exercise when the others arrive, this time so was so focused on her exercise that she didn’t notice them. It wasn’t till Pinoe practically took away the ball she noticed them. “What’s up with you today?” “Just really want to play that’s all” Pinoe looks questioning but as long as Kelley keeps playing like she has been doing, Pinoe won’t ask further she might talk about it later, when they are in a bar or so, she wants to know more about the new addition to their squad.

 

At the end of the training Kelley practically sprints towards her bag, Laura calls her back. “Everything all right Kelley?” “Yeah, why?” “It’s just you seemed to be somewhere else with your mind” Kelley looks around, she knows she should tell her coach, Hope wouldn’t approve of her lying to her coach. “It’s just, a really good friend of mine is in a coma” “Since when?” “Yesterday” Kelley says and she almost started crying, … Laura noticed it and she sits down on a bench and motioned for Kelley to do the same. Kelley looked at the goal, a goal Hope should be defending, she shouldn’t be lying in a hospital bed. “I don’t know if she would want me to tell it or not but Hope is in a coma” Laura looked at her for a moment “Hope Solo I mean” Laura looks shocked, although she hadn’t had a chance to meet Hope, Hope was supposed to be on her team and she had seen the footage of the accident. She always wanted to go visit her but it might come off a bit weird and she knew Hope had shut out even Carli. _Wait, how do Hope and Kelley know each other, it hasn’t been in the news so Kelley and Hope must be close._

Kelley saw Laura thinking so she added “Hope is the one that trained me, she is the one that made me that player I am today” Laura nodded It was silent for a while “How is she?” “The doctor’s don’t know yet, they keep her in a coma till the swelling has reduced a bit.” Laura waited for Kelley to continue “They hope they can stop the medication the keeps her in a coma in a couple days and then it is up to Hope to wake up”

“Has she been able to move her legs yet?” “No” Kelley answers, not knowing If Hope still will be able to do that once she wakes up. “If you ever want to talk about it, you know where to find me” “Thanks Laura, and I would appreciate it if you kept it to yourself, I don’t ...” Kelley trails off and Laura says “off course”

 

Laura watches Kelley taking off sprinting and thinks about what she just heard. She had a lot of questions but she knew those would have to wait till Hope is better.

Kelley figures she has got a little bit time to before she is allowed with Hope. She stops near the Starbucks, hoping Kate will be there. She steps inside the coffee shop, she was out of luck, no Kate, just the barista that was there the first day Hope and Kelley met. Kelley turns around and walks back outside.

 

She drives towards the hospital and walks inside, she is glad that the news about Hope hasn’t leaked out yet. On her way to Hope’s room she comes across Hope’s doctor, she asked him about Hope’s condition, the swelling has shrunk a bit but not yet enough to let her wake up.

Kelley walks into Hope’s room and sits on the chair next to Hope. “So babe, how was your day?” Kelley asks, knowing she won’t get a response. Kelley takes Hope’s hand and traces a random pattern on it with her finger. “I missed you tonight, I know you said I should never sleep in you couch, something like ‘you break your back on it’ but I fell asleep on it and you are right, the couch is comfortable to sit in but it’s not a good couch to sleep on.” She looked at the machine that was bleeping “I will have to make sure I won’t get kicked out of your bed in the future, I don’t know how many nights like that my back will be able to survive” Kelley laughed at her joke. Kelley thought about how Hope would role her eyes at that joke.

Kelley talks about all kind of stuff, after a while she forgets keeping track of time. The nurse had the night shift and when she walked into Hope’s room she found a sleeping Kelley. She checks the readings on the machines. Then she grabs a blanket and covers Kelley with it. 

 

 

The following morning Kelley wakes up with an ache in her back. _Did I fall asleep on that couch again?_ It takes her a while to realizes she fell asleep in Hope’s hospital room, the nurse comes into the room a couple minutes later. “you are already awake?” “Yeah, just woke up a couple minutes ago” “Good, I’m sorry but I have you to ask to leave, normally visitors aren’t allowed yet and my shift ends soon.” Kelley stood up and folded the blanket “Thanks for letting me stay the night.” The nurse smiled “You’re welcome” Kelley quickly said “See you later” to Hope and she then tells the nurse “Thanks again and I go now, I don’t want to bring you in any trouble”

They both smile and Kelley walks out of the room.

Once back home, Kelley smiles _home._ She takes a shower before, like promised, calling her sister. Normally Hope and she were going on a run and have training today, but that obviously wasn’t going to happen. Kelley sat down and didn’t really know what to do. Kelley had still 5 hours to kill before she was able to go back to Hope. Eventually Kelley cleaned the house. Kelley went to the Starbucks, hoping Kate would be there. This time she is lucky, Kate is one of the barista’s working today.

“Hey Kell, that’s a long time ago. How is Hope?” That’s all it takes for Kelley cringe a little and for Kate to know something is wrong. “Alex can you cover for a minute?” Kate asks and steps from behind the counter. She and Kelley sit down at a table. “Hope is in a coma” Kelley says once they both sit down “What happened?” “I don’t really know I wasn’t with her when it happened but she has some swelling around the spine and that blocked a few nerves and other things I absolutely have no idea about. But that caused her to have trouble breathing. They keep her in a coma till the swelling has been reduced.” “What do you mean with fall repeatedly?” “She fell almost every morning for the past couple months, forgetting she can’t move her legs, she fell out of her bed.” _That’s why one morning she had the bruised arm and another day a,… Why didn’t she tell me something?_

…

 

Kelley comes into Hope’s room. A bunch of doctors are standing around Hope and Kelley feared the worst. “Is there something wrong?” Kelley quickly says “The swelling has shrunken enough, we have stopped the medication and it is now up to Hope to wake up” The doctors left the room. Kelley was glad the ventilator was removed, she didn’t like it, it made Hope look not like herself and it made so much noise. But she was glad something like that exists, knowing that was the only thing that kept Hope alive these past couple of days. Kelley places a soft peck on Hope’s lips and sits down in the chair.

“Kate is coming tomorrow, I know you probably don’t like visitors but when she asked how you were doing I couldn’t lie.” Kelley talked about training, about the talk with her sister, about the jokes Pinoe made during the training, about a bunch of stuff.

 

This time, Kelley didn’t stay the night the nurse of the previous night wasn’t working…

Kelley goes back to Hope’s place but before that she stops at her place to pick up some stuff. She could sleep in her own bed but she prefers going to Hope’s place. That way she still had something of Hope with her. _God what was she going to do when the team headed to Washington D.C. for the game against the Spirit?_ This time Kelley slept in Hope's bed. It felt weird to be here without Hope.

…

Kelley even showed up earlier to training. Laura came in a bit earlier, to check on her player. Kelley hadn’t seen her yet. Laura watched her play, Kelley’s warming up exercises where definitely of a high level. She just hoped Kelley would be alright to play the game against the Spirit.  As an athlete you are supposed to be able to put personal things aside and what Laura has seen from Kelley, she did a pretty good job. But you never know, even the most experienced athlete would have trouble not being affected by those factors.

Kelley, played good, as long as she was on the pitch she was totally committed to the game. Now, because she blocked everything else out, she sometimes blocked the coach or teammates out and that wasn’t good. Laura told her she wanted to see her after training while she was explaining some exercise to Kelley. The training ended, Pinoe followed Kelley to their bags, the freckled forward was more quiet than usual and Pinoe wanted to know why. “Do you want to hang out after training?” Kelley wanted to be with Hope before Kate came so she couldn’t stay here much longer, maybe after her visit to Hope. “I have plans for the afternoon but we can eat dinner together” “You do know I have a girlfriend?” Pinoe says with a smirk “I’m not asking you out on a date Pinoe, it is just dinner” “yeah, 7 pm, your place, you cook” Pinoe says and runs towards Carm and Syd who are arguing about who has the cutest dog. “Text me your address” She shouts and with that Pinoe has her attention on Carm and Syd. Kelley packs her bag and jogs towards Laura. “How is Hope?” “Good, the swelling has reduced enough, it is now up to Hope to wake up” Laura nodded, glad to hear that. “Will you be able to play the game against the Spirit?” “Yes, you can count on me coach.” Kelley says with a smile. “Good, see you at training tomorrow.” Kelley turns around and runs to pick up her bag before she goes to Hope’s car.

Hope looked just asleep and Kelley hopes she would open her eyes, but she didn’t. Shortly after she heard a knock on the door “Come in” Kate opened the door and stepped into the room.


	8. Chapter 8

  
12 more minutes and then she has earned another shut out. 12 more minutes and their victory tour would be over.  
The opponents forward, Sinclair, comes running in, the cross came to much forward and I dive to grab it. I have the ball in my hands and seconds later Sinclair crashes into me. The first thing that hits me is one of her boots, in my abdomen. The next moment I ‘m slammed into the goal post.It only takes one second for me to realize I can’t move my legs anymore. I want to get up but my legs won’t move. Christie, who wasn’t far away, comes running over, I still hold the ball.  
“Are you alright?”  
“I can’t feel my legs.” The other defenders were already on their way, Hope Solo doesn’t stay down.  
Christie puts up her arm, indicating they need medical assistance.  
“Keep still” Christie says. She sees the fear in Hopes’ eyes. Christie throws away the ball and holds Hopes’ hand. The forward comes towards them but an angry Carli stops her from doing that. The others of the squad are in a big circle around Hope, preventing the camera’s from filming Hope.  
Christie keeps talking in on Hope while the medical staff finally arrives. In meantime, the referee goes to Sinclair and pulls out a red card. Sending her from the field before checking up on Hope. The medical staff has already put a neck collar around Hope’s neck and they are stabilizing her first before putting her on the backboard. Christie sends Sauerbrunn to the coach to brief her. All that time Christie doesn’t let go of Hope’s hand. The medical staff is ready and carefully lift the backboard, with Hope on it. Christie walks with Hope, still holding her hand and talking in on her. The crowd start applauding, most of them are still shocked form what just happened. 2 substitutions are made, Ashlyn HARRIS for Hope SOLO and Whitney ENGEN for Christie RAMPONE.  
The next moment Hope wakes up in the hospital, she hears the doctors say something about paralysis and all she wants to do is go back to sleep and hope this is all just a really bad nightmare. She closes her eyes and falls asleep.

 

I wake up slowly, and open my eyes. Not really knowing where I am  
“Told you so, if there is one thing that can wake up Hop Solo than it is the smell of freshly brewed Americano” I heard that but I didn’t really register it. I turn my head to where I think the nose came from. I have to blink a bit before I get a sharp image.  
“Hi”  
“Hi” I answer slowly  
“I’ll go get a doctor” The tallest one says.  
The other one leans in, but stops, like she isn’t really sure.  
“I do remember you, Kelley”  
“Really?” She asked surprised  
“How could I not?” I try to smile  
She leans in and quickly pecks me on the lips  
“How are you?” She asks softly  
“Tired”  
Kate comes back with a doctor, he does some test and orders some more test and scans for later that day. He allows Kate and Kelley to remain in the room but once they see the patient is getting tired they should let her rest. He says if they have any questions or if there are any changes they should just call him and with those words he steps out of the room. Kate stays for a bit but she wants to give Kelley some private time with Hope before Hope is too tired. Hope thanks Kate.  
“How are you?” Hope asks once Kate left the room  
“I’m fine, don’t worry” Kelley says but she knows she looks like crap.  
“try again”  
“I’m better now that you are awake”  
“Good” Hope says and yawns  
“You should get some rest”  
“I will, once you are home”  
Kelley stood up and says “make some room.”  
Hope goes a bit more to the right.  
Kelley lies down on the bed, next to Hope and snuggles into her. Hope puts her arms around Kelley.  
Kelley softly places a few kisses on Hope’s neck before saying “Now, you can fall asleep”  
“Why?”  
“Because I’m home” Kelley says sincerely.  
Hope smiles, that was so cheesy but she felt Kelley really meant it.

The friendly nurse came in to check on Hope, and smiled at the sight in front of her. That check-up could wait, sleep was as important. She silently walked back out of the room.  
Hope was the first one to wake up, she looked at the younger girl snuggled into her.  
How did I get so lucky?  
Hope smiled and enjoyed the moment. Kelley woke up a few minutes later.  
They cuddled for a while and Hope could feel Kelley had something to ask her but for some reason Kelley didn’t.  
Kelley wasn’t sure if she should ask it now already.  
“What’s wrong babe?” Hope asked  
How does she do that, Kelley thought  
“I’m not sure if I’m allowed to ask, but can you feel your legs?”  
Hope knew this question was coming “Off course you are allowed to ask babe, but no, it seems like I completely lost that again”  
Kelley saw the disappointment in Hope’s eyes  
“You will get it back” Kelley said with that much conviction Hope believed it herself.  
Kelley’s gaze came across the clock “Damnit” She says.  
Hope looks questioning at her.  
“I promised Pinoe I would cook for her”  
“Already replacing me babe?” Hope asked with a smirk  
“Never” Kelley replies and gets out of the bed.  
“I have 45 minutes to get some groceries, my apartment cleared and have the food ready”  
Kelley puts on her shoes and Hope says “Why don’t you just take some of the food from my place? I think I have enough food in the fridge to feed the whole team”  
“Yeah, Thanks, I’m going to do that.”  
Kelley almost ran out of the room but Hope called her back.  
Kelley walked back and looked questioning at Hope, she then smiled and leaned in to quickly kiss Hope but Hope made sure to deepen it and lay all her love in it. Kelley smiles and turns around.  
“See you tomorrow” Kelley says and practically sprints out of the room.

Kelley drives to Hope’s house and grabs some stuff, not only food. She puts it all in the trunk and drives to her place. She quickly unloads everything and starts cleaning her place. She then remembers she still needed to text Pinoe the address. She then takes a quick shower and before she can check on the food the bell rings. Kelley opens the door and somehow she is surprised to only see Pinoe, she was sure Pinoe would have invited Carm or Syd.  
“I kind of lost track of time so dinner isn’t ready yet but we can drink something in mean time.”  
“Sounds great” Pinoe replies, Kelley walks towards the kitchen and Pinoe looks around, curious to learn more about this mystery person.  
Pinoe wondered how Kelley could live here, she barely had any stuff in here. (most of Kelley’s stuff is at Hope’s place but Pinoe doesn’t know that off course)  
“You studied at Stanford?” She asks once she spots Kelley’s cardinal team photo.  
“Yeah” Kelley yells back  
Pinoe looked at the pictures, she found it weird that someone as Kelley wasn’t selected for the pro team the first time.  
“Why didn’t you get into the pro team the first time?”  
“I don’t really know, I guess I was not fit enough and my love for donuts was greater than my love for an early morning run”  
Pinoe smiled “So what changed?”  
Kelley puts down the drinks and thinks a moment before answering. “I realized that the time that you can do what you really want to do is limited so you should not waste time to get where you want to be because it all can be over in a split of a second.”  
Pinoe thought about that for a moment before she nodded. Kelley is right. Look at Hope, one split of a second and she is paralyzed, no longer able to play games.

They talk about the reign and the upcoming games. After a while Pinoe tries to figure out if there is someone special in Kelley’s life but either Kelley is too good at this kind of games or either she doesn’t have someone special in her life.  
Kelley asks about the national team camp that is coming up in just a few days and Pinoe gives her some tips to beat the Spirit.

After Pinoe left, Kelley quickly washed the dishes and went back to Hope’s place.  
Hope’s bed is way better than hers and it feels like she has Hope with her.

Kelley knocked on the door, hoping Hope would be awake. There was no response but she softly opened the door and looked inside, Hope is sleeping. She walks silently into the room and places the stuff Hope had asked her to bring, near Hope’s bed. She sits on the chair next to Hope’s bed and checks her mail. After just a few minutes Hope wakes up but it takes her another few to realize she has a visitor. Kelley can’t stay long, she has to catch her plane to Washington D.C. Kelley wanted to tell her coach, Laura she would not be able to come along since Hope woke up but Hope insisted she goes along. Since the NT players are in camp, they will count on her. (Kelley just wanted to make sure Hope didn’t push herself too far since there was no one there to keep an eye on her.)

Hope was released from the hospital a day later, Kate took her home.  
Kate had made some dinner so all Hope had to do is warm it up and eat it. Hope thanks Kate for bringing her home and they say goodbye, Kate has to go to work. Hope makes her way around the house and notices Kelley has changed some things. She has made the house more ‘wheelchair friendly’. Hope smiles at this but at the same time she hates it. She rolls the wheelchair into her fitness room. She hasn’t set foot in here since the accident. She makes sure the brakes (Wheelchair) are on and punches the punching bag. She calms down a while later and sees she has a couple more minutes. She sets everything up for the game. She sends a quick ‘good luck’ text to Kelley .She gets a reply an shortly after she sees both team walking onto the pitch.  
The game ends in a tie, Kelley scored a goal and assisted on the second but the Spirit also got two balls behind the Reign keeper. Hope is glad she can sleep in her own bed again and laughs when she sees what Kelley made.  
Her phone rings not much later.  
“A railing, babe? Really?”  
“Yeah, so you don’t accidentally fall out of the bed and it forces you to be awake before you can get out of the bed.” Kelley laughs. She had fixed a railing on Hope’s side of the bed so she couldn’t fall out of it. They talk about the game for a short while before Kelley gets to tired and they both fall asleep.

The next morning Hope’s alarm goes off and she wants to get out of the bed but is blocked by the railing. She sees the note attached to it. _Told you you would need it. xx ._  
Hope smiles, she gets into her wheelchair without falling.  
The Reign won’t come home for a couple days, they travel from Washington D.C. to Chicago to Houston and to Portland before coming back home. In that time Hope spends a lot of time in the physiotherapy. She wants it back, but by the time Kelley comes back she still cannot move or feel her legs.  
Kelley arrives late at night but Hope is waiting for her. Once Kelley is home they both fall asleep pretty quick. Since Kelley has the day off they sleep in.  
Kelley wakes up before Hope, that is a rare thing and she looks at the other woman.  
“Stop staring” Hope mumbles, still half asleep, Kelley laughs. How does she do that, without opening her eyes, how does she know?  
Kelley traces an old scar alongside Hope’s leg. Hope’s eyes shoot open.  
Kelley notices and says “What?”  
“Your hand”  
“What’s wrong with my hand?”  
“I can feel it on my leg”  
Kelley looks Hope in the eye while putting her hand on the other leg  
“Now your hand is on my right leg”  
Kelley looks down to check, her hand is indeed on Hope’s right leg.  
Kelley is ecstatic, she knew Hope would get the feeling back in her legs.  
A bit later, Kelley is making breakfast. Hope’s kitchen is still not adapted to Hope in a wheelchair, it has been 6 months.  
Kelley brings Hope to the hospital and wants to wait outside but Hope’s says she should come with her. The doctor wants to take a couple scans, to see what changed. So Kelley stays with Hope while waiting with Hope. Hope makes a Sudoku and Kelley sends some texts to her sister, it has been a while since she called but everything had been so busy. A few hours later and all the scans are done. The doctor doesn’t see that much of a change but then once again, the scans looked just fine a couple months ago and Hope couldn’t feel a thing back then.  
Once back home Kelley gets a text from Laura, asking if she can come in. Kelley is a bit nervous, not knowing what to expect. Meanwhile Hope goes to physiotherapy.  
Unlike last time, Hope has a bit feeling in her legs but she can’t move them.  
Mac is glad that she has regained the feeling in her legs but he is happy Kelley is back. He didn’t know how much longer he could handle grumpy Hope. He notices Hope pushes herself, hard. He only hopes that she doesn’t push herself too hard and won’t be too disappointed when it takes her a few days to move her feet.  
“What did Laura wanted to talk about?” Hope asks while signaling to Kate  
“She wanted to talk about the last game.”  
It wasn’t Kelley’s best game.  
“She is not kicking you off the team is she?”  
“No, I will just need to work harder and with the national team players back from camp I probably won’t start the next game.”  
Hope could hear the disappointment in Kelley’s voice.  
“Babe, we will do some more training this week and you will get there before next game.”  
Kelley nodded, and Hope wiped away a tear that was about to roll down Kelley’s cheek.  
Kate came with Kelley’s coffee a minute later, she stayed with them for a while but it was too busy for her to be able to sit with them.

 

“32, 33, 34, 35, come on Kelley just 15 more”  
Kelley breathed heavily but she was going to complete the exercise, she wasn’t going to give up.  
“48, 49, 50” Hope smiled and Kelley let herself fall onto the ground.  
“Hope made her way to Kelley and handed her a bottle of Gatorade.  
While Kelley was drinking Hope made her way closer to the goal and put down some cones and puts some sticks into the ground. Meanwhile Hope’s phone rings but she is concentrated on getting the sticks into the ground while remaining in her wheelchair. Kelley stands up and runs towards the phone. “Abby” appears on the screen, but before she can pick it up and bring it to Hope the phone stops ringing. Kelley jogs back towards Hope, figuring it wasn’t that important and that Hope could call back after the training.

Later that night, Kelley lies on the couch with Capt. Sully on her stomach. Hope smiled at the sight. Then her phone rings, she hasn’t checked it since this morning. Still looking at Kelley she picks up the phone and says “Hi” without looking who is calling.  
“Hope”  
Hope freezes, it has been a while since she heard that voice.  
“Abby” She says while making her way to her office.  
Kelley heard and looks up but Hope is already in her office. Kelley wants to know what this is about but she also knows it is probably none of her business. She decides to cook dinner and hopefully it will be ready by the time Hope has finished her call.

At the end of the dinner Kelley can’t contain herself any longer, knowing that it was probably Abby Wambach and ever since the call Hope seemed tense.  
“Something wrong babe?”  
Hope looks at Kelley, she sees the worry in Kelley’s eyes.  
“Abby called, inviting me to her famous barbecue”  
“Cool, when”  
“From Wednesday to Friday but I’m not going.”  
“3 days, that must be a hell of a barbecue”  
Hope smiled, remembering the previous ones  
“Why aren’t you going?”  
Hope tenses up a bit more “I haven’t seen them since and I don’t want to talk about it with them.”  
Kelley nods but after a while she says “I think you should go”  
“why?”  
“You should just go for one day, just to catch up and …” Kelley trails off  
A few minutes later Hope sends a text to Abby she will make it on Friday.

The rest of that week Hope pushes Kelley really hard in getting better and Kelley is glad when Friday finally comes around.  
“You sure you don’t mind bringing me?”  
“I’m sure, I have some friends to visit in Portland so I won’t get bored”  
Kelley puts the bag in the trunk and walks to the passengers’ side to get the wheelchair.  
Kelley asks Hope a lot of questions about the national team players and manages to only twice take the wrong road. A couple hours later they arrived in Abby’s neighborhood. Kelley drove past Abby’s house and stopped 2 streets further.  
She stepped out of the car to get the wheelchair. Hope suddenly wasn’t so sure anymore. Once she was in her wheelchair Kelley turned it towards her and bowed down a bit to look Hope into the eye. “You can do this babe, and remember I’m just a phone call away”  
Hope smiled a bit “thanks” She pulled Kelley on her lap, not caring they were in public and kissed her. After a while Kelley stood up, gave Hope her bag and gave her a little push in the right direction, literally. Once Hope was out of sight Kelley turned around and stepped into the car.  
Hope made her way to Abby’s house. She knocked on the door and cursed when she saw the big doorstep. Sarah opened the door and at first she didn’t saw anyone, until she looked down.  
“Hope” She said and Hope wanted to turn around at that moment but she didn’t want to disappoint Kelley so she smiled and said “Sarah”. Sarah took a step aside so Hope could come in. Hope handed her her bag so she could use both her hands to pull her inside. Once inside she put her hand back out to take the bag back. Sarah handed it to her and looked outside, to see if the person that dropped Hope off was still around. There was no one.  
“Most of them are out but they will return soon” Sarah says while leading the way.  
Once in the kitchen Hope opens the bag and hands something to Sarah, Kelley bought it, if it was up to Hope she would have come without, not thinking of bringing something.  
“Thanks” Sarah says and Hope looks around  
“Carli and Pearcie are outside, the others will come back soon.”  
Hope nodded  
“What would you like to drink?” Sarah asked a bit nervous  
“Water is fine” Hope says and makes her way outside.  
Hope is about to go outside when she changes her mind, she turns back “How have you been? How is playing for the Thorns?”  
Sarah looks surprised, she didn’t expect this “It’s great. The thorns are really a great team and the fans are just amazing. But I miss her, I didn’t expect to ever be so far away from her again, especially not after our marriage”  
Hope thought about that, who knows Kelley gets traded at the end of the season and moves to the end of the country, no she couldn’t think about that now.  
“I’m sure she misses you just as much”  
“Yeah, I kind of forgot that. She wants to skype every day and from time to time she sends me something and…” Sarah trails off a bit before saying “But I love it”  
Hope laughs, that definitely sounded as Abby.

They went outside, Carli was surprised to see not only Sarah walking towards them.  
Christie looked around when she saw Carli’s expression.  
Christie doesn’t know if she goes to Hope and hug her, even before the accident Hope wasn’t a hugger and now she was in a wheelchair this would be a difficult and probably awkward moment, or just stays seated.  
“Hope, you came” Carli says enthusiastically  
“Off course, who else will make sure Abby won’t make too much of a fool of herself.”  
They all laughed

By the time the others come back Hope sits with her legs in the pool.  
Pinoe first eyed if she had anything in her pockets before giving her a push.  
When the others notice what she is doing they yell and try to stop her but it is already too late.  
Hope is in the water. The others look worried at where Hope disappeared under water. Pinoe, completely oblivious to why they yelled at her looks confused at them. When she turns to look at Hope, her gaze comes across an empty wheelchair standing not far from where Hope had been sitting. Pinoe remembers and jumps into the water. But when she comes back above the water she sees Hope has already made her way to the side.  
Pinoe swims towards her  
“I’m sorry Hope, I totally forgot”  
“It’s alright Pinoe. I do too sometimes” Hope says and pulls Pinoe in for a one-arm hug.  
The others were looking at them while holding their breath, they didn’t expect Hope to react this way.  
Hope pulls herself out of the pool and takes of her shirt to wring it out. She feels everyone looking at her.  
“Wow Hope” Lori yells from the deck and whistles.  
Hope looks at the before following their gaze and looking at her own body. She just shrugs.  
She puts the shirt in the sun, hoping it will dry faster that way. (Luckily she’s wearing a sports bra.)  
She gets herself back into her wheelchair and not long after her phone rings and she gives her wheel a few turns to have some privacy.  
“How did she get here?” Cap asks  
“I have no idea, While she entered I looked outside to see someone that might have dropped her off, but she was all alone.”  
Whoever is calling, it is someone special to Hope. No one had ever seen her that happy when she read the caller’s name and they could hear Hope’s laugh from time to time. Christie wanted to know who this person is, so she could thank him or her for making Hope happy.

By the time Hope makes her way back to the group, Abby has already started cooking. The team is spread out and everyone helps a bit. Hope eyes a person sitting alone a bit further, just enjoying the sun and the calm.  
Hope makes her way over to that person and sits down next to her (on the ground). Hope’s back is probably going to kill her later today for that but it is worth it.

“So, how have you been?” Hope asks after a moment of silence  
“Great actually, I just came back from Paris”  
“How was it?”  
“It was different but it was good, I learned a lot and …”  
It is silent for a moment “It was really good” They both knew what Tobin wasn’t saying.  
“How are you?” Tobin asks  
“I’m better now”  
Tobin nods her head.  
“How do you know Kelley?”  
Hope turns her head so fast Tobin thinks she has at least pulled a muscles.  
“Kelley who?” Hope tries to recover  
“Kelley O’Hara”  
It is silent for a moment and then Tobin continues “I saw you two earlier today”  
Hope doesn’t know what to say for a moment, sure they were in public so there had been a chance someone spotted them but still.  
“We met in Seattle”  
“You are the one that trains her?”  
Apparently Kelley had talked about that.  
“Don’t worry, I’m not like Pinoe. I don’t gossip.”  
“Yeah.”  
“Thanks dude, she was down when she wasn’t selected for the pro team. I tried to cheer her up but then again I was in Paris so there wasn’t much that I could do.”  
Hope did not know that story and wanted to know about it but she was going to ask about that another time.  
After another silence Tobin asked out of the blue  
“Do you love her?”  
“Yes” Hope replies  
“Have you told her?”  
“Yes but I’m planning on doing that again when I get back. Things have been a bit hectic and I think I don’t always show her how much she means to me.”  
Tobin knew what Hope was talking about, they looked alike on that part.

“Have you got any feeling in your legs?”  
Hope looked around, She had always trusted the tanned midfielder and they have always told the truth to each other so Hope figured she shouldn’t change that now.  
“Yes, I regained the feeling in my legs a couple days ago”  
Tobin looked surprised “But I can’t move my legs and I would appreciate it if you keep this conversation to yourself”  
“Off course”  
another moment of silence  
“Does it hurt?”  
Hope was surprised, not many people ask this question “Yes, it hurts, but that’s good because it means I can feel”  
They talk for some time and Hope is glad she could …  
They are interrupted by Abby who tells them dinner is ready.  
Hope pulls herself back into the wheelchair. Once she leans back she can feel her back is already killing her.  
Dinner is nice, they talk a lot about the NWSL and most of them are surprised that Hope is up to date with most things that happen in the NWSL. They thought, she would have had no interest in the NWSL since she couldn’t play anymore. But if Hope had to be honest, if it wasn’t for Kelley she wouldn’t know a single thing about it but then again she wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Kelley.  
Hope was glad they didn’t ask about her legs and at the end she was glad she came. It was good to see her friends again.  
It is almost time to say goodbye.  
“Hope do you want to ride with us back to Seattle”  
Hope quickly thinks, sure she would get questions if she said she already had a ride but she couldn’t let Kelley drive back on her own.  
“Thanks, but I already have a ride”  
“Is there a certain special person in your life that we don’t know about?” Pinoe asks  
“There are a lot of special persons in my life” Hope replies and takes out her phone to check the message she received a couple seconds ago. Hope smiles and replies, Lori and Pinoe give each other a knowing look but decide to let their keeper of the hook for now. They all say goodbye to each other.  
On the way back Kelley asks about the barbeque and Hope asks what she did in Portland.

What Hope doesn’t know is that Kelley has a plan, Kelley has a plan to get Hope walking again. That would be her way to say thanks for all Hope did for her and just because she loves Hope. Kelley had met with a specialist in Portland, she gave her a lot of useful information.


	9. Chapter 9

CHAPTER 9

A few weeks later, Hope had been able to move her feet. Although it felt like a major conquest, Hope was also disappointed that after all this time all she could do was move her feet for a few inches.

 Hope was waiting for Kelley to come back from training and made the mistake of googling herself. She couldn’t believe what they were all writing about her and she knew something had to change. So when Kelley came back she found Hope typing on her computer.  Kelley gave her a quick kiss and looked at the screen, “What are you doing?” “Just finishing up some things.” Kelley looked worried at Hope. Hope closes her laptop and focuses on Kelley “How was training?” “Good, I think I have shown I at least deserve a couple minutes in the next game” Hope smiles “Knew you would” Kelley just gives her a kiss before asking “What do you want to eat tonight?” “I kind of wanted to go out tonight” Kelley looked surprised, this is the first time since they met Hope wanted to go out. “You sure?” “Yeah, I booked us a table at a restaurant not far from here. So go change” Luckily Kelley bought some nice cloths when she was away with the Reign otherwise she wouldn’t have anything appropriate to wear.

Kelley walked out of the room, looking for Hope. Kelley’s jaw dropped when she saw Hope. Hope’s expression was similar to Kelley’s. _Wow,_  Hope thought, she had only seen Kelley in sport gear or in Kelley’s normal lazy outfit.  


Hope hates that she can’t hold Kelley’s hand while they walk to the restaurant, she hates she can’t open the door for Kelley, …  but she loves that Kelley is here with her.

They arrived at the restaurant, it was a quiet fancy place. Kelley noticed the people looking at them, mainly Hope, while they were making their way to their table. They probably weren’t used to see someone in a wheelchair in this kind of restaurant. Kelley looked back and the others quickly looked away. It was obvious Hope had made the reservation, the table was set for 2 but there was only one chair. Hope laughed when Kelley ordered spaghetti. Kelley just shrugs her shoulders and is glad that a fancy place like this also serves a normal spaghetti. Hope asked a lot of questions about Kelley’s family and past while they were waiting for their dinner to arrive. Kelley was surprised by this, but ever since Hope came back from that trip to Portland she seemed to try harder to get to know Kelley . Kelley liked it. But whenever she asked something about Hope’s past or family she quickly changed the subject back to Kelley. _This might not have been such a smart idea,_ Kelley thinks when she starts eating the spaghetti but like always she struggles with eating those slippery …  


Dinner was the best that Kelley had eaten in a long time. Although she normally wasn’t for all the fancy stuff (she was glad they had also had regular things like a spaghetti on the menu.) Hope pays the check. Before they make their way back out Kelley walks around the table and kisses Hope, Hope is a bit surprised by this. On their way outside, the others avoid looking at the pair. Kelley walks behind Hope with a triumphant smile on her face. Hope slightly shakes her head at Kelley’s antics, but she too is smiling. Once outside Kelley wants to walk back to Hope’s house but Hope stops her. “What are you doing Hope, your house is that way” Kelley says while pointing in the direction they earlier came from. “We are not going home yet” Kelley looks surprised “But before we leave you will have to change shoes.” Kelley looked down, she is wearing heels. When she looked back up she saw Hope holding a pair of her sneakers. Kelley looked questioning but she takes off her heels and puts on the sneakers.  


They ended up at a deserted spot but had a magnificent view, Kelley was glad Hope had taken her sneakers. ”If this is the place where you are going to murder me, at least thanks for the delicious last meal” Hope laughs and pulls Kelley sat down on her lap “I could never hurt you on purpose” Hope says silently and they both enjoyed the view and the silent for a while.

“Kelley” Hope says, waiting for Kelley to look at her. “I know I should have asked you this a long time ago but I didn’t want to do it as long as I wasn’t able to move my feet because I don’t want you to think I ask this because I need someone to cook for me or to take care of me. I do this because I love you.” Hope takes a breath before continuing “Would you like to move in with me?” A big smile appeared on Kelley’s face. “It was about time Hope no longer living solo SOLO”. The following morning,after the run (and shower) Hope and Kelley go to Kelley’s place, it is a small one. Hope looks around while Kelley packs up her stuff. Hope is amazed by how little stuff Kelley has, she didn’t take that many stuff with her from Georgia. But then again Kelley has been practically living with her for a while now. Hope goes to physiotherapy while Kelley arranges her stuff at their house. Kelley doesn’t know what she should do with her cloths, should she put everything in the room they use now or should she put it in their room upstairs (master bedroom is upstairs but ever since Hope got paralyzed she used one of the guest bedrooms, downstairs). Truth be told, Kelley had even never been upstairs. Kelley decides to not unpack those boxes and to ask Hope when she gets back home.

Hope decides it is time for them to move into their bedroom. She sits down on the step and uses her arms to get on the next one, it takes her a while but she reaches the top. Kelley had brought Hope’s reserve wheelchair up so she can easily make her way around the first floor. Kelley moved the little of cloths Hope had lying downstairs and she moved her own stuff up. Although Hope can’t do much, she helps Kelley as much as she can. Kelley cleans the first floor before they put their stuff up there and after all this they are both happy that they can lie down and sleep.

 

 

GAMEDAY, SEATTLE REIGN vs WESTERN NEW YORK FLASH

Hope sees the girl, Jess. “You made it” “Off course I did” Hope says with a smile The girl talks about the upcoming game. Hope smiles when she sees the girl talking animated and with proud. She even made her own starting eleven. “Why didn’t you put Winters in the starting eleven? Hope was surprised by the detailed explanation the young girl gave her. They talk about the game in halftime. She also asks the girl about how she ended up in a wheelchair.

After the game Hope waits for the girl her parents to come to them, she would like to say something to them.

Hope is on her way towards the exit when she spots someone familiar. That person takes her to some kind of maintenance room, Hope doesn’t like it when someone pushes her wheelchair, certainly not if she had not given them permission to do so. “How are you” “Fine” “You are not fine Hope, you should have gotten out of that wheelchair weeks ago” I can’t believe it “The doctors give me a 40 percent chance of walking again and you tell me I should have gotten out of this wheelchair weeks ago” I shout “Yeah” she shouts back “if I tell you that you have 40 percent chance of winning the world cup, will you just sit back and hope for the best or do you fight, you fight to get there and to win the damn thing” “Not everything is about winning a world cup Abby.” I counter. She freezes for a moment before she says “you know what, you are right, not everything is about winning a world cup, but for us it is, it is our ultimate goal, our …. “ But I cut her off before she can continue, “Not ours anymore, it is just yours, not mine” “You see that’s where you are wrong. I saw the look in your eyes. You are an athlete and one of the best, I can see you still have it in you but you have become accustomed to your wheelchair, you have slacked. The Hope I knew wouldn’t do that, the Hope I knew would never settle for doing anything less than the best.” With that Abby walked away and left Hope alone

Hope slams down a few cones before making her way back home (alone), she had told Kelley to hang out with the girls after the match.

Kelley hangs out with some girls of the Reign (and Flash) to celebrate the win.

Kelley is thinking of saying goodbye to everyone when her, Pinoe’s and Syd’s phone ring. They all grab their phone. Kelley is surprised to see a twitter notification of Hope. Hope hasn’t tweeted ever since the accident.

“She was at the game today” Syd says surprised and looks at Pinoe. Pinoe is also looking at the picture of Hope and some young girl, both in a wheelchair. Kelley smiles and reblogs it, she then sees Hope has also written some tweets and attached a link to it. _That’s what she has been working on._ Kelley quickly reads through the article and smiles. Although the tweets are in real Hope Solo style, Hope is 100% correct, Kelley had sit in a wheelchair for one day and that day she didn’t get inside a few buildings she had to be in. She fell 2 times and had to go 2 bus stops further to find one where she could step onto the bus without having to step out of her wheelchair.

Kelley finds Hope sitting on the deck, looking at the water, she clearly is thinking about something not only about the tweets she had send out into the world, so she first puts her stuff away before sitting next to her. After a while Hope asks “Do you think I have been slacking lately?” Kelley looks at Hope. _“Where did that come from?_ And thinks about what she should say before saying “That depends, you have helped me big time improving my game, pushes me further. But every time I want to help you to get better you shut me out. You offer to help me, instead. It is almost as if you have grown accustomed to the wheelchair and don’t want to get out it anymore. It is like you don’t want to put in the effort to get out of it. If you put as much as an effort in getting out of the wheelchair than you put in me getting better then you probably would have been walking by now. I’m not saying it will be easy, but I’m saying it is doable. As long as you let me help you and ...” Kelley trails off. Hope looks surprised at Kelley, she didn’t realize she had been doing that the past weeks. Hope looks back at the water and Kelley opens her mouth to say something but she closes it without having said something. They sit out there for a while, Kelley had expected Hope to say something, she doesn’t know what. But Hope didn’t say anything and Kelley didn’t know if that was a good or a bad sign. She was too tired from the match and almost fell asleep so she kissed Hope quickly on the forehead and made her way inside. By the time she came out of the bathroom she could see Hope still sitting outside. Kelley lies in bed, not being able to sleep. She keeps thinking about what she said and she might have handled that with a bit more tact. It was also their first ‘fight’ although Kelley wasn’t sure if it could be seen as a fight.

Hope had been going through her foundation site. She read all the comments people wrote about it, most of them were positive but not all of them. She replied to them and reading the story of a 19 year old kid really touched her. _Maybe it is true, if people can come from worse I can come back from this. …. . Now all I need to fix is things with Kelley_ Hope thought while getting into bed.

Kelley must have eventually fallen asleep cause when she opens her eyes Hope is lying next to her and the clock on the wall indicates 1034. Kelley looks at Hope, who is still sleeping and she snuggles a bit closer to Hope, she maneuvers herself in Hope’s arms and falls back asleep. What she didn’t know was that by moving she woke up Hope. Hope was smiling when she felt Kelley snuggling into her. That was a sign that Kelley wasn’t mad at her, she thought that after last night’s conversation she screwed it up but now Hope wasn’t so sure of that.

…

 

Hope is at physiotherapy “Come on Hope, one more time” Mac says Hope ‘stands’ in some kind of pool, she puts all of her weight on her hands that are holding onto a bar. She just needs to move her legs, just a little bit, not even take a step but she just needs to move it a bit.

Once Hope gets home she lies on the couch, tired from physiotherapy. After a while her phone rang. It had been a while so Hope accepted the call. Kelley comes home a while later, she had been training all day. “How was training?” Hope asks “Good, but I miss your trainings” Kelley says while dropping off her training bag. “We can do one tomorrow” “Do you have time for that tomorrow?” Hope makes her way (in the wheelchair) to Kelley, she pulls Kelley on her lap and gives her a soft kiss before saying “I always have time for you babe. Physio isn’t till 5 pm.” “You do know I have to take a plane at 3pm.” “Totally forgot, do you really have to go?” “Yes I have to” Hope pouts and Kelley snuggles a bit closer.

They arrive at the couch and Kelley orders Hope to lie on her belly. “Why?” “Because I can tell you are in pain so let me take care of that.” Hope looked questioning but did as she was told. Once Hope was lying on her abdomen Kelley straddled her and started applying pressure on certain points. Hope was surprised, although it hurt even more in the beginning she could feel all the stress getting out of her body. “Where did you learn that?” Kelley almost replied ‘from a recovery specials’ but just in time she said “Stanford” “they teach you that in Stanford?” Kelley just smirks.

 

The following morning.

“Good thing that I have a 5 hours flight later today” Kelley says while she lies exhausted on the grass. “Come one Kell, one more time” Kelley sits up and looks at her “Really?” “Yes” Hope says Kelley let her fall back onto her back. She lies down for a second before slowly making her way back up and doing the final round of exercises.  


Kelley leaves for Boston and Kansas City The Reign will first face the Breakers before they travel to Kansas City. Hope keeps going to physiotherapy but what Kelley doesn’t know is that she was already able to move her legs (even before she left for Boston) Hope wants to surprise Kelley, she had been working so hard, she could only take a few steps and every step hurt but after every step she felt like she won the Olympic games, so happy and proud.

 

GAMEDAY, SEATTLE REIGN vs KANSAS CITY

Hope is in a rehab center, she came in her wheelchair and sits in front of the two bars. She pulls herself up on the two bars. She puts all her weight on the bars and slowly let her feet touch the ground. Her feet barely touch the ground but Hope can already feel the pain. She puts a bit more weight on it and it hurts like hell. But she bites through and slowly moves one hand then she lifts a foot, actually more drags it over the ground, and moves her foot forward. It is painful and slowly but Hope gets forward.

She reaches the end of the bars and looks down at the laptop. A smiling Kelley is on screen, is that a tear she is pinking away? Hope quickly sits down in another wheelchair she bows down and picks up the laptop. Kelley is still at a loss for words and is just squealing and so happy that Hope finally walked.

“You did it, you walked” Kelley almost yelled Hope’s smile just got bigger “I’m sooooooooooo proud of you babe” Kelley says and watches Hope’s grin get even bigger. _God I love this woman_

 

Kelley is about to ask a ton of questions but then the door opened and since she was rooming with Syd she had to say goodbye to Hope. Hope has just enough time to wish her good luck for the game against FCKC before Kelley closes her laptop and Syd jumped onto Kelley’s bed.  


“So who is this mystery person that makes you smile like an idiot?” Syd asks. Syd and Kelley had been roommates for the couple days they have been in Kansas City. And Syd has numerous times seen Kelley smiling like an idiot at her phone. She couldn’t contain herself anymore and wanted to know everything about this person.

 

Everyone noticed the shift in Kelley’s mood, she had been walking around with that ridiculous smile plastered on her face for a couple hours now. They even had asked Syd if she knew what that was about but Syd didn’t know. Syd had tried to get that information out of Kelley but all she got as answer is “I’m just pumped for the game” Kelley’s game was great. She was unstoppable and Carm asked her if she might have taken a sugar overdose. Kelley scored 2 goals and assisted on the third.

Hope got back home in time to see the game. She saw the subtitle reference Kelley put in her goal celebration and smiled. She went to bed early but took along her laptop and waited for Kelley’s call.

 

….

Kelley got back from the away match and surprises Hope at the physical rehab center. Hope is trying to walk, she is still putting a lot of wait on the two bars but it seems like she is doing fine. Kelley leans against the doorpost and watches her girlfriend. Then Hope falls and she kind of loses it. She throws away some equipment that is lying on the ground and crawls over the floor to her wheelchair, she sits in front of it and instead of getting into it she slams/ pushes it away. Kelley did not expect this. A second later Hope seems to be sorry about it and slams her fist into the ground, regretting she pushed the wheelchair so far away because now she has to crawl all the way to the wheelchair. Hope gets in it and closes her eyes for a moment, Kelley takes advantage of this moment and walks silently towards Hope. She sits on Hope’s lap and wraps her arms around Hope neck, softly pecking her cheek. “You will get there babe” “It’s just so …” “I can’t imagine how it must feel for you but I’m here. I’m here to help you, so let me” Kelley makes some other points before she is stopped by Hope kissing her. Hope just wants to go home but Kelley makes her step the bars one more time before they go home. This time Hope doesn’t fall. Once they get home Kelley orders Hope to lie down on the couch and rest. She figured Hope must have pushed herself with no one watching over her. She takes some ice and makes sure to massage the tired muscles. Hope smiles and thanks her. After Kelley has taken care of Hope she goes to the kitchen to prepare something to eat. She can hear Hope watching the TV. Kelley joins Hope on the couch while the mac and cheese is in the oven. They cuddle for a bit while watching some movie Kelley chose.

 

Later that night Hope is lying in bed and waiting for Kelley to arrive. Her phone buzzes and Hope is surprised to see she has a message from Carli. It has been way too long since she has talked to her friend but she didn’t like them seeing her like this. The Western Flash is going to play a match in Seattle against the Reign in a couple days and Carli asked if they could hang out later. They ended up texting for a half an hour, until Carli fell asleep and Kelley entered the room a couple minutes later.

 

Kelley hovered above Hope “You are really enjoying this” Hope says with a smirk. Kelley smiles. “Just so you know, once I can trust my legs you will be the one lying on your back”. Kelley start making her way down but before she reaches the waistband of Hope’s shorts. Hope stops her and brings Kelley back, looking her in the eye “Sorry babe, not before my legs are fine …” “But why?” Kelley poses and looks Hope in the eye “You do have feeling down there?” .She asks, knowing Hope didn’t have all the feeling back in her legs. “Off course, it’s just …” Kelley understands it and as much as she wants to go further so knows it’s for the best if they wait just for a little longer. They make out for a while but stop before things get too heated. Kelley falls asleep with one arm around Hope and her head resting in Hope’s shoulder.  



	10. Chapter 10

They just finished their early morning run, Hope was still in her hand cycle and she starts to hate it. she wants to be able to run again, she wants to feel the grass brush against her ankles she want to feel her legs burn after the run, she wants to be able to run again.

They sit outside and Kate comes out of the Starbucks not much later. She hands Kelley and Hope their coffee and they talk for a few minutes. Kelley almost let it slip that Hope could ‘walk’ again. Hope didn’t want anyone to know until she could really walk. Not just move her legs in the water without putting weight on it.

 

Recovery is going better and with the help and perseverance of Kelley (and off course Hope) they get Hope walking a few steps with crutches. Kelley is so proud and Hope is smiling, finally she is walking again and she would do almost anything to make Kelley that happy and proud. Hope gets the crutches so she can exercise at home. But she has to make sure to let her body rest enough.  After physio Kelley drives them to the training fields for another one of their trainings. Hope’s body is exhausted so she let Kelley do all the work.  Hope sits in her wheelchair on the pitch and looks at Kelley doing some exercise. _She really has improved a lot. Her touches are shorter and more precise._

Once at home Kelley gets a call from her mom and Hope goes into her office. Her foundation had had a lot of attention, especially from the media, but most of them were actually just looking for some details on her current situation. Hope response to some of the stories others shared.

 

The day before the game, Hope (in her wheelchair) and Kelley walk inside the Starbucks. Kate greets them and tells them it is about time they came inside the shop again and not just for a quick coffee outside after their morning run. Kelley makes sure no one is entering the shop. Kate turns around to give Hope her order, not noticing Hope is standing. It isn’t till Hope takes a sip of her coffee (a few seconds after she received it) that Kate notices Hope is bigger than her. She lets out a little squeal and runs from behind the counter “O my  god, you can walk” She says while looking at Hope, who is leaning heavily on her crutches. Hope places the coffee on the counter and slowly walks towards Kate, who is standing a couple feet away. Once she reaches her Kate hugs her. Kelley looks at them smilingly. Soon after Hope sits back down in her wheelchair and they catch up until another costumer enters the shop, about 2 minutes later.

 

 

 

 

GAMEDAY: SEATTLE REIGN – WESTERN NEW YORK FLASH

Kelley has got word she would get the start. Hope hopes there won’t be too many people looking for her at the game, it had been a few weeks since she posted a picture of her and jess at the game.

Off course jess is there. Jess is already impatiently waiting for her. Hope is glad the other fans don’t seem to notice her. Jess talks excitingly about the reactions  she got from people.Hope smiled and laughed at some of them. She really liked this girl and it made her so sad knowing she would be out of this wheelchair someday but this girl had a bigger chance winning the lottery (then getting out of the wheelchair).

They enjoy the game, it is a good game but a late goal for the flash resulted in the game ending in a tie. After the game Hope talked for a few minutes with the girl her parents, they would meet in the near future to talk about Jess and the foundation. After that Hope makes her way around the stadium and waits for Carli to arrive. Hope goes back to her home with Carli, forgetting she was supposed to go home with Kelley.

 

“Babe, I thought you were going to wait for me at the stadium.” _Damnit_ Hope mutters to herself.Carli looks up surprised, Kelley rounds the corner and stops dead in her tracks. “Euhm, hi Carli” Kelley manages to say and looks at Hope. Carli looks at Hope, like she demands an explanation “Why don’t you go take a shower first, Kell?” Hope says while giving Kelley an encouraging nod.

Hope takes a sip from her drink, trying to give herself a little bit more time before she will have to tell everything. Carli turns around so she is facing Hope and waits for Hope to talk. “What do you want to know?” Hope says “Everything” Hope tells the story, leaving out some parts (most of the parts she leaves out is how she was/ felt at that time. She didn’t say she used to fall out of bed every morning because she simply would forget that she couldn’t use her legs anymore. She also let some parts involving Kelley out of her story. She also leaves out the coma story.)

 

Carli listened and was surprised to hear some of the things but mainly she was happy to see her friend happy again. She did find it hard to believe that her friend could be together with the sometimes obnoxious  but for the rest of the time very playful (some would say a bit childish)rookie of the Reign that was probably going to win the rookie of the year award.

Just before she came to the part where she would tell Carli she can walk again she notices her glass is empty and she notices Carli’s is too.  She looks around to see if her crutches are within reach, “Do you want another drink?” Hope asks “yeah, but I can get it” “No, it’s no problem.” Hope swiftly grabbed her crutches, it still was hard to walk, she dragged her feet over the ground and she still needed to lean heavily on them but she got there. The look on Carli’s face when Hope stood up and started walking is golden.

Carli is shocked to see Hope walking again, granted it is nothing like normal walking but she can walk. By the time Carli snaps out of it Hope is back with the bottle. “You can walk again” Hope smiles and sits down “Since when?” “Not so long ago”

 

“Dinner is ready in 5” Kelley yells from the kitchen, by that time Hope finished her story. Carli’s phone rings (trainer wanted to know where she was). While Carli answered her phone Hope makes her way, walking, to Kelley. She stood behind Kelley and placed one crutch against the countertop and gave her a one armed hug (from behind) she softly kisses Kelley neck. Kelley leans back a bit, (otherwise she would put too much weight on Hope for her to be able to stand) “Thanks” Hope whispers in her ear “She’s cool with it?” “Yeah, I think so.” Hope gave Kelley another soft kiss.

Carli witnesses the cute moment between the two of them. Hope walks to the table and is glad she can sit down again. Dinner is good, they talk mostly about soccer. After dinner  Kelley does bring Hope her wheelchair, she already tired her body by doing all these walks and the last thing they wanted was to fall onto the ground in front of Carli.

 

Kelley leaves Carli and Hope alone after dinner, they have a lot to catch up. Then one moment Kelley gets a call and forgets they have a visitor. She runs towards Hope and is cheerful rambling some things. Hope and Carli look towards her in question. Kelley jumps on Hope’s lap and continues rambling. “Babe I need you to slow down” Hope says while trying not to laugh. Kelley was still way too excited so she showed her phone. A big smile appeared on Hope’s face, Hope also forgot for a moment Carli was sitting just a few inches from them. She kisses Kelley before saying “I knew they would, they couldn’t keep ignoring your game …” Carli clears her throat. Hope gives her the phone, Carli recognizes the lay-out and sees her name and Kelley’s name on it. It is the roster for the upcoming USWNT camp and friendlies against France. Carli congratulates Kelley and figures that is also time to get back to the hotel. That night Kelley was way too excited to fall asleep so she ended up staring at a sleeping Hope. Hope tried to stay awake but she was exhausted, recovery was exhausted. Every night Hope fell asleep pretty quick, Kelley didn’t mind most if the times, after all she is usually also asleep within minutes.

Carli comes back the next day with a surprise for Hope, she has got Leo with her. He clearly is very happy to see her again. Kelley takes care of all the other stuff Carli has brought along. “He clearly misses you too much” Carli says seeing the dog very happy to see Hope again. Kelley hopes he will like her so when Hope makes her way to Carli she quickly intercepts him and is sure to win over his hart, that appeared to be a less difficult task then thought.

“Thank you for taking care of him” Hope says sincerely “You’re welcome, if I ever need something, just tell me” “Thanks, I don’t know how I can every repay you for everything you did for me” “I think Kelley has done more than I did these last couple of months, and you don’t have to repay me, just make sure you come back. We need you.” “About the National team, you and Tobin are the only one that knows about me and Kelley. I would appreciate it if it stays that way. I want Kelley to have a fair shot on a spot, she deserves it. I don’t want people thinking she got on the team because of me and I certainly don’t want her kicked off because of me” Carli nods, she had been thinking about this last night. She had played Kelley twice and she really was a good player, they could definitely use someone like heron the team. They looked at Kelley and Leo playing … “Make sure to treat her right, she seems a good one” “She is” Hope says while looking at Kelley. Carli looks at her friend and laughs when she sees the look in Hope’s eyes. She has no idea how they would be able to keep it a secret with Hope looking at Kelley like that. “How come Tobin knows?” Carli suddenly asks. “Kelley is the one that drove me to Abby’s barbecue. She parked the car 2 streets from Abby’s house. To avoid being seen by one of you  but I guess Tobin saw us when we said goodby.” Carli wanted to ask so many more questions but she had to catch a plane. “Call me, I mean it this time. Don’t shut me out” Hope nodded, knowing she let down her friend. Carli gave her a hug and quickly said goodbye to Kelley before walking outside. “How are you going to the airport?” Kelley asks “I’ll call a cab” “I can take you” She says while looking at Hope to see if it is all right. “You sure, I don’t mind taking a cab” “I’m sure. I’ll grab the keys” Kelley ran inside and Hope rolled herself a bit closer to Carli “Don’t scare her away. I really like her” Hope said and at that moment Carli knew Hope was in it for the long haul. She was determined to find out if that was also the case for Kelley before she stepped onto the plane back to New York.

 

 

In the next week, Kelley and Hope train a lot. Most of the time it is Hope training Kelley but sometimes it is Kelley that is training Hope. Hope can walk with the crutches for a couple minutes but it is still very hard and she even fell down a couple more times. They are once again at the pool and this time Hope needs to walk around, with water coming at the beginning until her abdomen and at the end 5 inches lower. But she was exhausted after it. Her legs were burning like they used to burn after a double full workout session and a 10 k run. The day before Kelley left for camp she surprised Hope with another dive in the pool at the navy base.

 

In that week Hope progresses a lot and at the end she still leans heavy on the crutches but her walking looks a bit more like normal walking, she is no longer dragging her feet over the ground. She goes on short walks (with crutches) with Leo and Kelley in the morning and sometimes in the evening. The media and US soccer have tried to gain some intel/update on her recovery but she ignored them both, maybe ignoring US soccer wasn’t her best move but she felt like she didn’t own them a heads-up. US Soccer hadn’t contacted her since the accident, if it hadn’t been for the tweets she sent out about her foundation they probably wouldn’t have contacted her.

At the end of the week, Kelley is al set and ready to leave. Hope says goodbye at home, since Kelley would meet up with Syd and Pinoe at the airport.  Kelley takes a cab to the airport. Hope takes her wheelchair to physiotherapy. Kelley is excited to go into camp. She doesn’t know a lot of them but she sees that more as a challenge then as a problem. At first she didn’t really like the idea of rooming with Carli, after all Carli is Hope’s best friend but it came in handy. Kelley could skype with Hope without fearing her roommate would come in and recognize Hope’s voice or see Hope’s face on the screen.

That week Hope pushes herself hard, maybe a bit too hard and after every training session she has to sit back in her wheelchair, her legs and body are just exhausted. She fell  a couple of times and she just hopes the bruising will be gone before she sees Kelley again.

She decides to take the plane to Washington and surprise Kelley (and the team). Although Hope can do already a lot she can’t do it for too long. After standing/ walking for a half an hour her legs are exhausted so she makes sure use her wheelchair to get to the stadium. She gets some kind of VIP/ player card and has the privilege to move freely around (in the entire building).

Hope sits in her wheelchair and she watches the game. It is hard to sit there in a wheelchair while seeing her team on the pitch playing a game. But knowing she will come back makes it a bit less hard. Ashlyn is doing a really good job and Hope is proud, proud because of the keeper Ashlyn has become.  Kelley didn’t play but that was to be expected. USA won with 2-0, goals from Carli and Abby.

This game is also Carli’s 200 game So after the game they have a little ceremony planned and the team stands at midfield looking at some footage of Carli’s games. After the fragment they could hear a voice through the speakers. The team looks around, all knowing to whom that voice belongs.

Hope slowly walks onto the pitch, she amazes everyone( almost everyone, not Kelley and Carli although Carli can see Hope’s walking has improved a lot) by walking even with crutches onto the pitch. Kelley is surprised to see Hope here. But she knows by the way Hope looks she is tired and she hopes Hope’s legs won’t give up on her, not in front of a couple thousand people. Hope has a microphone attached to her jacket and continues talking but is shortly after is interrupted by teammates running towards her and hug her. The last thing Kelley can see before Hope gets lost between the others is her smile. Hope was smart enough to switch off the microphone, not everyone needed to know what they were saying.

 

Once everyone is over the shock/ surprise, Hope continues her speech and the team listens, some still in shock. After her speech Hope stands to talk to her teammates and after a while Kelley fears that Hope is pushing herself too hard. Carli spots it too and nods at Kelley before making her way over to her old friend. She makes sure Hope leans on her. Kelley looks grateful at Carli and continuous talking with her teammates. The team is walking towards the tunnel, they had signed before the fragment so they would be able to walk into the locker room after the celebration. The people started calling Hope’s name Hope smiles but continues walking she knows she won’t be able to stand up much longer and she doesn’t want to fall in front of others. Once out of sight Hope quickly dropped back into her wheelchair, legs burning like hell, they even were shaking. She surely pushed herself too far.

While the players went to shower Hope catches up with Paul. They invite her back to the player’s hotel. There although she hates it she goes around in her wheelchair she is too tired to walk. She pushed herself too far to walk those couple yard, her legs were still exhausted from that morning. Dawn and Jill call her apart, they would like to talk about Hope’s recovery process.

After the talk she goes towards Kelley’s room. Kelley is rooming with Carli so no one looks up or questions why she would go into that room. Pinoe had barged into the room a couple minutes after Hope was there and had taken Kelley away to do some kind of prank on HAO. Carli and Hope make their way to the dinner room.

Hope sits at a table with Carli, Abby, Cap and a few others. They don’t want to push Hope into talking about her recovery so instead they talk about the team, about they hope Hope will join them fast. Hope knows she has still a long road ahead but she also knows she has people that care for her, people that will help her. Hope looks at Kelley, Kelley looks questioning and Hope just smiles.  She looks a couple more times at Kelley until Carli kicks her leg. “What was that for?” Hope wanted to ask but she then sees the look Carli gives her and at that moment she is glad Carli has her back. _Great another bruise on my leg._

After dinner Hope sneaks out of the hotel, she just wants to be alone for a minute. It doesn’t take long before she hears someone coming her way. At first she thought it was Kelley but once that person came closer Hope recognized the footsteps, these ones where much direct.

“I might owe you an apologize” “I thought Abby Wambach didn’t do apologizes” “I don’t but Sarah forced me, after she heard what I did she almost kicked my ass to your house, but since she doesn’t know where you live” Abby trailed off and Hope was laughing, leave it up to Sarah and she can make Abby do anything. “You don’t need to apologize because you were right, I was slacking and I guess I needed someone to tell me that to realize it” Abby sits down next to her friend a bit surprised by what Hope just told her. She was proud and wished Sarah could have heard it. Sometimes she does open her mouth on the time. “How is recovery going?” “Slow, I wish I would go faster” They talked for a while before Hope gets back to her room, she lies down and takes off the back brace. There is a knock on her door. Hope decides to sit in her wheelchair to open the door. Walking without that brace would have been too hard and she pushed herself already too much these last couple of days. Kelley wasn’t surprised to see Hope in her wheelchair. “Hi” Kelley says with a smile. Kelley sits on Hope’s lap. Hope closes the door and brings them both inside. “How do you feel?” “Tired, I figured I would use some extra sleep and go to bed early” Hope said “Can I stay?” “Off course” They put on their pj’s and Kelley kisses Hope before they both lie on the bed. Hope sets an alarm and shortly after, they both fall asleep. Kelley wakes up first, after a few seconds she starts massaging Hope’s legs. It is a thing she would do ever since Hope and she fell occasionally asleep on the couch or in bed together. At the beginning Hope didn’t feel it, and once she got the feeling back Kelley kind of stopped doing it.

Hope wakes up with the feeling Kelley’s fingers tracing lines on her legs. They cuddle for a while until they have to go downstairs. Hope sends Kelley down first and she puts her back brace back on. She sits in her wheelchair, figuring she would save her energy for later.

The next day Hope doesn’t come out of her wheelchair, her legs hurt too much. Kelley isn’t happy with this. Hope feels guilty, she should have known better then to pull off that little stunt. In that moment she knows how Abby feels, Kelley became her Sarah.

The following day Hope goes into training, she does some light exercises, as a warming up for Dawn’s test. When Hope lifts her shirt to let Dawn place the sensor on her body Dawn is surprised. Hope notices Dawns look “Something wrong?” “No, It’s just I had expected you to not be so muscular after being paralyzed for so long” “It was just my legs that were paralyzed, I kept training my upper body, shoulders and arms.” “The whole time?” “Not at the beginning, it wasn’t easy, I kept forgetting” Dawn looked questioning “you forget exercising?” “Yeah that too but I forget I couldn’t use my legs anymore. In the morning I would wake up, and my mind would think I was stepping out of bed so my body followed but my legs were still lying in bed so I  fell onto the ground forgetting I couldn’t move my legs. Then I only did the minimum. I was frustrated cause I couldn’t do the things I could do before. It was exhausting but then someone came along, things changed and that person showed me I could come back, she pushed me forward. I started training like an athlete again, like me again.” Hope continued talking and although Dawn would love to meet the person that helped Hope, though she wasn’t going to ask. The keeper had already told her more than she would have a year ago.

Dawn is interested by Hope’s level of fitness, sure Hope’s legs weren’t even near the level she used to be, but the rest of her body is in better shape than before the accident. …

Hope shows up at the training, She sits in the bleachers and watches the training. At the end of the training she can’t help herself and for the first time since the accident she walks (with crutches) on  the pitch towards the goal, she stands on the line. The others were at the other side of the pitch, Jill was giving some post practice comments. “Hope” Hope looks up and sees Kelley standing with a ball in front of her, Hope drops her crutches and Kelley kicks the ball softly straight into Hope’s hands. Hope catches it and grins. Kelley walks towards her and picks up the crutches, Hope still looks at the ball in her hands. Hope gives the ball to Kelley and Kelley gives the ball back to Hope. They walk together to Hope’s wheelchair. “What is up between those two?” Abby asks Carli. What Hope and Kelley didn’t realized was that everyone was looking at them. “Don’t know. But what Kelley just did is going to boost Hope’s will to come back” Carli says and made her way to the couple. Tobin followed her and intercepted Kelley.

…

The next day, Hope is too tired from the previous day and doesn’t want to get out of her wheelchair, the team goes out eating and are surprised how many obstacles a person in a wheelchair had to overcome. But they also see how skilled Hope had become with the wheelchair, not that they have seen her use that thing when she just sat into it but they could tell she was more than capable of handling the wheelchair perfectly.

Hope watches the next match from the bench and although she wants to be the one out there on the field, she is ok with her sitting on the bench. She knows she will be back. And she gets to sit next to Kelley. Kelley once again didn’t get the call but she didn’t mind, she learned a lot and made a ton of friends.

 

It is time to say goodbye, camp is over and everyone goes back to their NWSL teams. Pinoe, Syd, Kelley and Hope are all on the same flight home. Hope just hopes those two won’t ask about Kelley and her. They have tried to keep their relationship hidden but Hope had the bruises on her body that proves they didn’t really do such a good job. Syd and Pinoe fell asleep before take-off. So the flight was easier than Hope expected. Kelley also figured the two were too afraid of the badass keeper to ever question Hope’s and Kelley’ relationship.

  

Hope is glad to be back home, she has pushed herself a bit too far these past couple of days. So she can finally rest a bit. And she is glad to see Leo again. But most of all she is glad she no longer has to act like a stranger around Kelley.

 

Kelley lies in bed, waiting for Hope to join her. Kelley doesn’t really know where things started but she does know it heated up pretty quickly. Hope has already pulled off Kelley’s shirt and is working on getting rid of Kelley’s sports bra. Meanwhile Kelley hands touch the skin under Hope’s shirt. Kelley was going for Hope’s pants when Hope stopped her. Kelley looked questioning. “You sure?” Hope asks Kelley leaned in and continued kissing Hope, she took this as a yes. Once Hope finally got rid of the sports bra she leans back for a moment and looked at Kelley, admiring her for a moment. Kelley opens her eyes and looks at Hope. She blushes a bit when she sees Hope looking at her, Hope leans back in, but slowed things a bit down, she didn’t want to hurry this. She wanted to show Kelley how much so loves her. And to Hope’s word this time it was Kelley that was on her back.

 

The following morning

They both woke up by the ringing of Kelley’s phone. “You really shout shut off that thing at night” Hope mumbles still half asleep. Kelley grabs her phone, still half asleep and answers the call. “Yeah” she says “Kelley, I have been trying to reach you, i’m waiting for my luggage at the airport. Do I wait for a cap or do you come and get me?”

Kelley was right awake.

What? Aare you in Seattle?” she almost shouted, Hope was right awake too. “Yeah I figured it was so long ago I saw you and since you are not coming to me I have to come to you” “What?” Hope whispered to Kelley.

  
 


	11. Chapter 11

Kelley put her hand in front of the microphone and whispers “Erin, my sister, is at the airport in Seattle and asks if I’m able to pick her up. I had no idea she was coming.” Hope didn’t expect this, they had to think fast, that wasn’t Hope’s strongest point if she hadn’t drink her coffee yet. “Tell her to take a cab to downtown and that you will pick her up there, that gives us some more time to think about all this”

Meanwhile “Hello, Kelley are you still there?” Erin says

… “Yeah, Erin I’m still here. I think it is best if you take a cab downtown, I will pick you up from there.” “Why can’t I just come to your place?” “Just take a cab to the Starbucks, I haven’t have coffee yet and it is easier that way” “All right see you there. First one orders coffee.”

Kelley ends the call and puts down the phone, she falls back and closes her eyes for a moment. _What are we going to do? I stop renting that studio a while back…_ “I can put her in a hotel room” “No, you are not going to do that, she can stay here” “You sure?” “Yeah, we have plenty of rooms” “You sure you want to let my sister stay with us for a couple of days” “I will have to meet them one day so why not now?” Kelley gives her a peck on the lips before adding “Thanks” Hope smiles and says “We will need to get moving, if we want to make this place presentable before your sister arrives.” Only now Kelley notices they are both still naked. A blush creeps onto Kelley’s cheeks.

 

20 minutes later Kelley takes Hope car to the Starbucks, not the Starbucks they normally go. She was glad to finally see her sister again but at the same time she was nervous, so many things changed since she last spoke with her sister. Her sister knew about her friendship with the keeper, she did not know about their relationship or about them living together. Erin is sipping from her coffee and has another standing in front of her when Kelley enters the shop. They greet each other with a hug. “How was your flight?” “it was good, it was quiet early but apart from that it was the perfect flight.” Kelley grabs Erin’s bags and they walk outside. By the looks of it Erin will stay for more than just a couple days. “How long were you able to take off from work?” Kelley asks trying to be subtle. “Long enough to catch up with everything you have been doing here” Erin asks They reach Hope’s car and Erin is surprised when Kelley opens the trunk to put away Erin’s bag. “Wow. Either they pay you more than I thought or you just stole that car.” Kelley just smiles nervously “I can assure you I did not steal this car.” She still had no idea to bring up Hope. Kelley starts driving north, after a while, driving in a residential area Erin says “I thought you rented a small apartment” “I did” Erin looks at Kelley and eyes her “You did?” “yeah” “So where are you taking me now?” “To my house” “Your HOUSE? …” Kelley laughs nervously “No, it’s actually my girlfriend’s house but we live together for a while now” “wait a minute, since when do you have a girlfriend?” that moment Kelley drives onto their driveway. “your girlfriend is some …” Kelley steps out of the car and takes Erin’s bags out of the trunk. She walks inside and Erin hurries to follow her. “BABE, WE ARE BACK” “you are not going to at least tell me her name before she …” “Ooh, you will know” Kelley says with a smirk, cutting her sister off. Erin tried to come up with a time that Kelley told her about her girlfriend. She couldn’t. She then tried to guess who that girlfriend might be.

 

Before they make it any further into the house Kelley hears the sound of Hope’s crutches hitting the floor and she drops Erin’s bags and runs towards the kitchen. There she finds Hope leaning heavily onto the table. And the crutches next to her on the ground. “Are you alright?” “Yes, I lost control of my legs for a moment but luckily I could hold onto the table” Erin had followed her sister but she can’t see Hope, Kelley is blocking her sight. Kelley hands the crutches back to Hope and only now remembers she wasn’t alone. She turned around, surprised to see Erin behind her. She then took a step aside and says “Hope, this is my sister Erin” “Erin this is my girlfriend Hope” This one Kelley says with a lot of proud in her voice. “I would have come to get you from the airport but as you can see I’m still recovering “. Hope takes both crutches in one hand and holds out her other hand for Erin to shake it. Erin looks at Hope, she looks familiar, then it hit her. _No way, Hope Solo, how the hell did Kelley that. Wait, wasn’t she paralyzed?_ _I did not expect this._ Sure when she went over potential girlfriends Hope’s name came up because she knows that Kelley was really worried about her when Hope was in a coma. _But I never would have thought there would be something more between those two. I didn’t even know Hope liked girls._ She stayed frozen for a moment. “The Hope Solo?” she finally manages to say. Hope looks at Kelley, not knowing if this was a good or a bad reaction.Erin shakes out of her thoughts and takes a step forward, she hugs Hope. Hope looks at Kelley, Kelley just laughs. _This might be an interesting combination, the laid back and sometimes socially awkward Hope Solo and her totally opposite family._ Hope had to go to physiotherapy so she let the two sisters alone to catch up and she hoped that her house will not be burned down by the time she gets back, you never know with two O’Hara’s in house.

Kelley shows Erin the house and ends in the guest bedroom and gives her some time to settle in, in meantime Kelley is playing around with Leo. Erin quickly puts away her clothes, she wants a quick as possible know everything about all this. Kelley knew she had a lot to tell her sister, she just hoped she will be able to tell things like they really are.

Erin finds her sister near the pool. She sits down facing Kelley. “When did all this happen?” Erin asks Kelley starts talking, from time to time she pauses to give Leo some attention.

…

“Oh my god, you two totally did it last night” Erin shouts out “that’s why you have been glowing all day and grinning like an idiot” A blush crept on Kelley’s cheeks. “how was it?” Erin asks. “ERIN” Kelley yells out in shock “I don’t ask you about your love life with mister Jim” “Oh come one Kell…” “Nope I’m not telling you” Kelley says while crossing her arms “That bad?” Erin joked Kelley slapped Erin’s arm. Kelley’s mind went back to last night. She would have never thought Hope would be that gentle and ... she didn’t really know how to describe it.

 

Kelley had to go to training so she left her sister alone with Leo and Capt. Sully. Erin didn’t mind, she had some things she needed to finish anyways. Like always Kelley shows up early at training. She has already completed her warming-up routine by the time the others arrive. “Seriously Kell you have to stop doing that. You make us look bad” Syd jokes. “You guys could also show up early, than no one would look bad” Kelley countered.

They were doing so stretching, Kelley was talking with Carm. When out of the blue Pinoe yells from the other side of the circle “Hey Kell. Did you move?” They all look at her “Why?” Kelley asks nervously, she totally forget Pinoe knew where she lived. “Cause I wanted to come by last night and when I knocked on the door some old dude opened it.” Pinoe waited a second before adding “Don’t tell me he is your boyfriend” Kelley started laughing. The others are still looking at her “No, he is not my boyfriend. I had to move out” She looked around to find a reason “Mice” She quickly adds “Too much mice. Even for a Georgia girl like me.”

They all shivered and “IEUW” “Where are you staying now?” “A family friend” Pinoe eyes her one more time to make sure she isn’t lying. “You sure he is not your boyfriend, you have been acting a bit strange lately” “Yes I’m sure, I do not have a boyfriend” Kelley says with full confidence.

 

On her way back home Hope tried to remember everything Kelley told her about Erin and the other O’Hara’s. Hope was a bit down and could use a nap. Physiotherapy didn’t go that well, her legs were still tired from last night and all the walking this morning. She was surprised to see Kelley pull onto the driveway, when she also made her way to the house. She then remembered Kelley also had training. Hope waits for Kelley to enter the house. “How was training??” “Good, but I could use a nap” Kelley thought about bring Pinoe up but decided they could talk about that after their nap. They enter the house and it is silent, they settle pretty quickly on the couch and fall asleep a few minutes later. Both forgetting Erin should be around. Erin comes back a half an hour later from her walk with Leo. She sees the car on the driveway so she knows Kelley is back home. She let Leo walk into the house and puts her stuff away before looking for her sister. It is quiet, too quiet for Kelley to be around. She walks around downstairs, no way she is going to check upstairs. When she walks into the living she smiles.  She takes out her phone and snaps a picture of the sleeping couple. Kelley is snuggled into Hope and Hope has both her arms around Kelley. They both look happy, for as far as Erin can see. Erin sends the photo to Kelley before making her way to the kitchen were her stuff was still standing on the table. She continued working, hoping it would be finished before those two woke up. It could have come over kind of creepy if she had been standing there looking at them while one of the two, or both of them woke up.

 

Kelley wakes up with the feeling of Hope’s finger softly tracing a random pattern on her skin. Kelley smiles and snuggles even more closer. “Do you know what time it is?” Hope asks Kelley growls, _She really had to ask that at this moment?_ Kelley takes out her phone, only to see the picture Erin took. She is surprised by this. They totally forgot they have a guest. “What?” Hope asks when she see her girlfriend reaction. Kelley shows Hope the picture. Hope smiled at the picture, she really loved it. “Can you send it to me?” Hope said while giving Kelley back her phone. Kelley was surprised by this. She kissed Hope but before could deepen it Kelley walked away looking for her sister, leaving a pouting Hope behind. Kelley turned around before leaving the room and laughed.

“Why didn’t you wake us?” Kelley asks when she sees her sister in the kitchen.  “You two looked like you needed it and I wanted to finish this anyways.” “You finished?” “Yes” Erin says and closes her laptop. “What do you want to do?” “I don’t know I don’t know Seattle that well, maybe you have a few ideas.” Kelley had plenty of ideas.

“Babe why don’t you take Erin to the Mike Romeo (Not the guitarist)? I’m sure she will love it.” “What about you? It is still too hard for you to do that with or without crutches and there is no way you will be able to do it in your wheelchair” _And you hate that thing so even if it was possible you wouldn’t do it._ “I’ll stay here, let you two catch up and I have some stuff to do for the foundation anyways” “You sure?” “Yeah, I would only hold you guys up and I think you could use the time alone with your sister” All that time Erin had been sitting there quietly, watching the two people in front of her. “Ok.” Kelley replied and walked to Hope to give her a quick peck on the lips. “Come on Erin” Kelley excitingly says

“Thank you” Erin says to Hope before following her over excited sister. She had no idea where they were going but if she had to guess, she would say it was going to be pretty epic seeing her sister’s reaction. But then again that wasn’t always the best reference. Once the house was quiet again Hope walked into her office, she pushes the chair back to its original place and sits down.  She opens her laptop and makes a list off all the people she has to call. After a couple calls she puts down her phone and starts reading some of the stories that are posted on the site.

 

By the time the two O’Hara’s come back Hope has finished her work and she had already started making dinner. She could hear them both and smiled. It sounded like they had a great time. They both tell about everything they did and Hope smiles, the two of them talk simultaneously, making it sometimes impossible to understand either of them. The next couple of days fly by. Erin accompanies them on their early morning run and Hope is surprised by Erin’s level of fitness. Between trainings Kelley shows Erin a couple of her favorite places. Erin gets why her sister fell in love with the keeper, although Erin doesn’t know Hope that well she can tell Hope is nothing like the media describes her to be.

GAMEDAY

Erin walked towards the sound in the kitchen, hoping it would be her sister. Not that she disliked Hope, she just didn’t know her that well. But when she heard a loud noise it could either be her sister, being clumsy or it was Hope, who fell. She quickened her pace a bit and walked into the kitchen. She saw Hope lying on the ground. Hope stayed down. Erin didn’t know if she needed to let Hope get up by herself or help her so she asked “Are you all right?” Hope pushes herself up and sits on the ground leaning against the counter, blood running down her face. Erin quickly looked for a clean towel and held it against the wound. _She probably hit her head on the countertop while falling._ Hope is surprised by this. “Can you hold it in place for a minute? I’ll get the first aid kit” Hope took over the towel and Erin quickly goes to her room. _Great this was really the perfect moment to fall. Does she even know where the first aid kit is?_

Erin came back with a first aid kit, it was definitely not Hope’s. Erin cleaned the wound and put a small bandage over it. Hope notices how fast it all goes. “Thanks. Do you always carry a first-aid kit with you. ” “Well, if you have Kelley as a sister you quickly learn to have one nearby at every time” “I noticed you did a pretty quick job” “Yeah I had a lot of practice” Hope smiles , she can imagine.

Kelley wakes up to an empty bed. She is surprised normally Hope waits for her or wakes her up. But she might have let Kelley sleep because she has an important game later today. Kelley puts her hair in a messy bun and walks towards the kitchen. She sees the two of them eating breakfast .She first greeted her sister and when she wanted to greet Hope she noticed the bandage above Hope’s eyebrow. “What happened?” She asked worriedly, knowing Hope probably hit her head when she fell down she adds “Erin I told you, no more hitting on my girlfriend” They all laugh “IT’s all right babe. I hit my head when I fell, I had been walking around for too long without even eating breakfast. Luckily your sister was here to take care of me. Without her I would have bleed to death by the time you found me.” Erin laughs at this, Kelley looks at her girlfriend and pouts before turning to her sister “Are you already stealing my girlfriend? “ Kelley asked before adding “I hope you have some more gaze” while pretends to prepare for a fight. “All right, break it off. Before someone actually gets hurt” Hope says. The two sisters sit back down and start eating.

Although Hope found the whole situation funny she found it endearing that Kelley was willing to fight for her, literally fight for her.She just hoped things would never go that far.

 

After brunch Kelley leaves for the game. Although the game isn’t in a couple hours, she needs to be there. Some last minute briefings and preparations for the game. It was an important game, Seattle Reign vs Portland Thorns.

Hope and Erin are going to watch the game together. Kelley is a bit nervous, she just hopes Erin doesn’t say something that will shut down Hope. So far the two of them got along just fine.

Since Kelley took the car to the stadium Hope and Erin go by foot, Hope use her wheelchair to get there. Once they arrive at the stadium Hope makes her way to the space reserved for wheelchairs. She manages to talk the security agent in putting a normal chair in that area for Erin to sit on. (Normally that space was reserved only for people in a wheelchair).  They came early, so this time Hope is there before Jess. Jess shows up a couple minutes later, she has brought along the friend that told her about Hope. Hope quickly tells Erin about Jess. They all talk for a while. The teams leave the pitch to get ready for the game.

 

Tobin quickly jogs towards her friend. Once she is sure no one can hear them she says “Is it already meet the sister- time?” “I don’t know. She just called a few days back saying she was at the airport in Seattle waiting for me to pick her up. What could I do? Tell her to stay in a hotel and hang out with her just a couple minutes before or after the game?” “Why didn’t you bring her to your place?” “Because I no longer rent that small studio.” “Hope finally asked?” Tobin asked surprised _Off course, it would be Tobin that told her girlfriend to get her act together._ “Yeah” But before Kelley could say anything else they were surrounded by Thorns and Reign players.

Once the two  friends start talking on her own, Erin figures this is the time to hear out Hope, they still have a couple minutes before the game begins. “Kelley really appreciates you showing up here, she might not have mentioned it but it means a lot to her and to me” “Thanks. I must say I was surprised when she told me she lived together with her girlfriend. I didn’t expect it to be you. From what I knew (media) I had not a clue how you two could ever be an item. The image I had from you was totally wrong and I can tell you really love and care for my sister.” Hope smiles, she knows she doesn’t have the best reputation and  knew it was probably going to be a lot harder to convince Kelley’s parents. “But if you ever do hurt her, I will come after you” Erin says while trying to sound as serious as possible. Hope nods.

After that they switch topic and talk till both teams walk back onto the pitch, Kelley looks at Hope. Erin looks at the two of them and smiles. She can tell her sister is really in love with the woman next to her. She really didn’t get Kelley’s teammates didn’t notice. Erin didn’t like the idea of keeping Kelley’s and Hope’s relationship a secret (for now) she did realize it was in Kelley ‘s best interest.

With Hope in goal the game could easily have ended 5-0. Now, with a ‘rookie’(Kopmayer) in goal, the game ended 5-3.

Syd scored in the third minute.  Morgan tied it up in the 19th minute. Kelley brings the lead back in the 39th minute. Another goal by Kelley in the 49th minute. Pinoe scores in the fourth reign goal in the 56th minute. Tobin scores from a fast counter in the 58th minute. Sinclair brings the thorns back to 4-3 in the 75th minute. Kim Little scores in the 93th minute making it 5-3.

 

Hope is spotted by a few fans after the game and although she wasn’t planning on taking pictures with them but she does take some. Erin makes sure to stay out of sight from them and decides to stand between some people who are waiting to get a signature from some players.

Once back home, Erin got a phone call from her boyfriend and Hope and Kelley sat down in the couch. Kelley was leaning on Hope and they were softly talking to each other when there was a knock on the door. A while later the 4 of them were sitting outside, enjoying the end of a beautiful day. Tobin left a couple hours later, she had to get back to the hotel before midnight. Kelley leaves the next day with the Reign for Houston, so it was not only time to say goodbye to her sister but also to Hope. Erin also heads back home. Hope hopes the next couple of days would be less hectic than the past weeks.

 

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!” Kate says when she hands Hope her coffee. “Thanks” Hope wants to pay for it but Kate says “This one is on the house. A present for one of it most regulars, although you have been slacking lately” Hope enjoys her coffee for a moment. “So where is that girlfriend of yours? What did she get you?” “She is in Houston with the Reign, she has a game later today. And she doesn’t really know it’s my birthday today” “You didn’t tell her?” Kate asked in disbelieve “What should I have done? Hi Kell good luck with the game today. Oh and by the way today is my birthday.” Kate just shakes her head. Kate and Hope catch up while Hope finished her coffee before going outside. She still hadn’t figured out how to walk with crutches and hold a cup of coffee in her hand. Hope walks to physiotherapy. “Happy birthday!! Girl” Mac says and hugs Hope. Hope is surprised he even knows it is her birthday. “Since it is your birthday you are going to work extra hard and try to walk without these” Mac says while pointing at the crutches.

…..

Meanwhile Kate was looking for a way she could let Kelley know it is Hope’s birthday.


	12. Chapter 12

“what day you said it is?” Kelley asked hoping she heard it wrong.  
“The 29th. Why?”  
She knew she forgot something. The days had flown by with her sister visiting and training and matches with the Reign “Fuck” Kelley could kick herself “She so is going to be so …” Kelley rambled so the rest of her sentence was not understood by the others.  
With that said Kelley ran out of the room leaving her teammates starlet behind.  
“What was that about?”  
“I have no idea”  
The others continue whatever they were doing.  
Kelley runs towards her room, but she doesn’t make it far she hears someone yell her name. She keeps running, but slows her pace a bit, while looking back to see who called her name. The next moment Kelley slams into a door. She stumbles a bit and touches her nose, to make sure it is not broken or something like that.  
Laura quickly made her way over to one of her star players.  
“you ok?”  
“Yeah, just wanted to check if this was a real or a cardboard door” Kelley says while knocking on the door “Definitely a real one”  
Laura just shakes her head, she has a team of goofies. First Pinoe, then Syd and Carm, now Kelley. Who’s next?  
Laura send Kelley to the conference room while she went looking for some ice.  
After talking about tomorrow’s game Laura asked “How is Hope doing?”  
This reminded Kelley of the fact she had still no idea for Hope’s birthday present.  
“Eeuhm, she is doing pretty good, I’m sure you saw her little stunt at the USWNT game”  
“Yes I saw that. About that. When will she be able to train with the team?”  
Kelley thought about that for a moment, to be honest she hadn’t really thought about that and she wasn’t sure Hope did.  
“I don’t know we haven’t talked about that, and she still has a long way ahead of her before she will be able to come back”  
“I’ll ask that when I’m back home”  
Laura kept Kelley busy for the next couple of hours.  
Kelley has a couple minutes left before dinner so runs to her room and after a moment of thinking she grabs her phone and calls the one person that could help her  
“I need a favor, a big one” 

Hope came home to an empty house. She would have loved it to spend this day with Kelley but as a pro athlete herself she knows that probably many more birthdays will be missed, hell she herself missed at least a dozen.  
She puts away her bag and settles down in the couch. Leo immediately comes over and begs for some attention. Hope gladly gives it to home. A few minutes later she absently … through his fur while thinking of all she did today. First she had physio, then she met up with a couple of friends. And now she was home again, just an hour and half before the game began. Although Hope hadn’t told Kelley it was her birthday she was a bit disappointment Kelley hadn’t wished her a happy birthday yet. After all her birthdate was all over the internet.  
The doorbell rang and Hope was a bit surprised by this. She didn’t get too many visitors (since not that many people knew she lived here, after all she didn’t even live here for a year).  
She makes her way (with crutches) towards the front door and first looks through the window before opening the door.   
“What are you doing here?” Hope wanted to ask but the visitor beats her to it.  
“HAPPY BIRTHDAY HOPE !!!!”  
Hope grins and even surprises her visitor with a hug.  
“Did you come all the way here to tell that”  
Tobin showed her the bags she was carrying   
“Are you planning on moving in?” Hope asked  
“Nope, I just brought some take-out.”

They walked into the kitchen and Hope took the plates.  
“Look like I’m just in time” Tobin says when she spots some vegetables lying on the countertop.  
Hope looks at them, they had been lying there for at least half an hour, she just was too tired and she didn’t really like just cooking for herself.

“So what brings you to Seattle?”  
“Your birthday”  
When Hope puts the plates next to the take-out boxes she notices they are from her favorite restaurant.  
“And your girlfriend might have been worried about you being alone on your birthday but I don’t think I was allowed to tell you that. But you would have guessed that anyway. How else am I supposed to know your favorite food?”  
Hope smiles, off course Kelley would be worried. But at the same time she was confused, if Kelley knew it is her birthday today why didn’t she say something? What the hell is she up to?  
“How does it feel to be 30?”  
“Just the same as 29.”  
Tobin walks with the two plates to the living room and Hope followed. Since she was still walking with crutches she couldn’t carry that much.  
Meanwhile, Kelley still has so many details to work out and she actually should be focused on the upcoming game. Once out of the bus, she quickly enters the building. She is the first one on the pitch and does some warming up exercises of her own, trying to clear her thoughts.

“How was Paris, at the BBQ you mentioned you just came back. How was playing with PSG?”  
“It was nice actually, another city far away from normal life, another team. Like a new beginning. I really liked it.”  
“Are you going back next season?”  
“Yeah hope so”  
“And what about the thorns?”  
“Really great team, although I was a bit awkward to be so close to Alex again”  
Hope silently nodded her head. They talked about PSG and Paris till the teams walked onto the pitch.  
Tobin and Hope are both surprised Kelley doesn’t get the start. When the camera zooms in on the bench Hope quickly grabs the remote and freezes the image.  
“Does she have a black eye?”  
Tobin looks at it and her left eye looks a bit swollen and a bit darker.  
“I think that is a black eye” Tobin said and laughed a bit What did KO did this time?  
“that’s why she didn’t want to FaceTime yesterday” Hope says more to herself than to Tobin while pushing the play button.  
Kelley sits on the bench and looks at the game, she is a 100 % focused.   
But she does come up with a way to say Happy Birthday to Hope. She just hopes she will be able to execute it. She gets subbed in at the 32th minute (after Syd goes down on a hard tackle)  
“It isn’t that bad, otherwise Laura wouldn’t have put her on the pitch” Tobin says and Hope knows it is through but still wonders where she got that black eye from.  
It is almost halftime and the score is still 0-0.  
Kelley sprints forward after she gets the ball. The cross clearly surprised the Dash’s defense. Kelley swiftly makes her way through the defense and McLeod stands no chance. Kelley runs to her teammates while putting up one finger.  
Halftime, Kelley hurries into the locker room.  
In the 68th minute Kelley scores another goal, this time she puts up 2 fingers. She hopes she has enough time to execute her plan.  
The time is ticking away and Kelley fears she won’t be able to execute her last minute plan. But then in the 89th minute, Pinoe serves her an amazing cross and a few touches later Kelley shoots the ball past McLeod.   
Kelley is ecstatic she sprints towards the closed camera (ESPN) and pulls out a piece of prewrap with ‘HAPPY BIRTHDAY 3-0” written on it and she holds up one finger. A couple seconds later her teammates reach her, she quickly puts away the piece of prewrap and manages to hug a few of them before the referee tells them to keep moving. Kelley just hopes Hope had seen this moment. Pinoe comes up to her and in the rush off it all she doesn’t really understands Pinoe, all she managed to hear was something like ‘Not original’.  
Meanwhile in Seattle, Hope hadn’t seen it, Leo had been trying to get her attention all second half and Hope finally gave it to him. Tobin did see it and rewinds the play a bit. Once Hope looks up she presses play. Hope smiles and shakes her head.  
The dash manage to score in the 92th minute and that also makes Kelley laugh. Tobin laughs to “How does it feel to be 31 years old? Or should I say 13?”  
She gets a pillow flying in her directing as a response.   
The referee blows the whistle, indicating the end of the game 3-1 win for the Seattle Reign.  
After the game Tobin wanted to head home, but Hope told her she could stay. Since Tobin didn’t have training in the morning, she gladly accepted the offer.  
“Can I borrow your laptop, I kind of promised someone to skype”  
“Sure” Hope made her way to the office. She first made sure she was logged off on all her social media before giving the laptop to Tobin, she also deactivated the password protection.  
“Thanks. Do you need it later?”  
“No, I still have my tablet. Do you need something else?”  
“Do you have some shorts and shirt that I can use as PJ’s I didn’t really bring any.”  
“Sure” a few minutes later Hope came back with a toothbrush, toothpaste, a pair of shorts and a shirt.  
“Thanks”  
“Your welcome”  
Tobin walked to her room, Hope made sure everything was put away before she made her way up. Tobin sends ‘Everything is set up’ to Kelley. She gets a big thank You in response. A few minutes later she receives a call from France.   
Hope reads some stories on the site of her foundations and replies to some of them while waiting for Kelley to call.  
By the time Kelley called she had already almost fallen asleep twice.  
“HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABE!!!!” Kelley yelled once the connection was made.  
“Thanks” Hope says with a big smile.  
“So how was your birthday?”  
Hope tells about her day and notices something weird on Kelley’s background. “Where are you babe?”  
“I snuck out of the hotel, I’m rooming with Carm and I wanted to keep our call private”  
Hope was still trying to figure out where exactly Kelley was when Kelley started talking about her teammates curiosity.  
After a while Kelley stops talking and Hope looks questioning at her “Something wrong?”  
“Nope I was just admiring how beautiful you are” Kelley says  
Hope shifts a bit nervously “really babe, how can someone be beautiful through FaceTime?”  
“I think you are beautiful” Kelley says and Hope shifts some more.  
Kelley notice the discomfort of the keeper and chuckles.  
“Have you opened your present yet?”  
“What present?”  
“The present I gave you”  
Hope looks questioning, “roll over and check the floor”   
Hope does as she is told and rolls onto Kelley’s side of the bed. She looks down and there it is, a big present. Hope puts down the tablet and picks up the present.  
Hope positions the tablet so she still can see Kelley while she opens her present.  
Kelley loves that she is able to see Hope’s reaction.   
“I thought that once you start training again you could use something a bit fancier than a normal sport bag.” Kelley says while Hope is looking inside the Gucci bag.  
She must have spent a fortune on this.  
“Thanks babe I really like it. I’m just not sure yet I’m going to put my stinky gear inside this bag”  
They talked for quite some time, after all Hope still needed to know how Kelley got that black eye.

 

The following morning, Tobin had been gone for a couple minutes when the doorbell rang. She made her way to the door and without looking who it was she opened the door and said “You forgot something …” she quickly stopped speaking. “Jill” She said in surprise “I …” Hope shut her mouth again before stepping aside and saying “come in”. Once Jill is inside she closes the door and they made their way to the kitchen.  
“Can I get you anything to drink?”  
“Do you have coffee?”  
“Yeah. Black”  
“Yes please”  
Hope made her way around the table.  
“so what brings you to Seattle?”  
“I wanted to check up on you” Jill says while taking a seat  
For the first time in 9 months someone of US Soccer comes to me to check up on me.   
“As you can see I’m not ready yet to play again.”  
“That is not what I came here for.”  
Hope turns away from the coffee so she looks at Jill.  
Shit she is going to tell me that whatever I do she is not going to take me back on the team.  
“I just came to see how you are doing.”  
Hope knew they probably didn’t take her silence any longer.  
“I’m getting better, as you can see my walking is pretty good” Hope said while placing her crutches against the counter. She picked up the two mugs and walked to the table (without crutches). Jill was amazed by this. 9 months ago, when she watched the game at home with her family she thought the USA lost in that moment their best keeper ever.   
When Hope showed up at one of the USWNT game a while back she was just shocked, how was that even possible?  
“First off all, I want to apologize. I should have made it here sooner. Ever since I was appointed head coach 3 months things have been hectic, and I know that is not an excuse but I …. I just was too busy .”  
Hope did not expect this “I came here to tell you, you should take all the time you need to get back and if there is anything I can do, just ask. I want to help you in any way I can”  
it was silent for a moment, Hope looked at her legs, they were shaking a bit and Hope knew she had to sit down if she didn’t want to fall in front of her new head coach. Hope sat down before answering “thanks, I must be honest I thought you came here to tell me that whatever I did, I was not going to get another call up. This means really much to me, and I’m sure I’ll keep that in mind.”   
After a while Hope’s phone rang. She looked at the screen and saw the ridiculous photo of Kelley on it. She smiled before looking up at Jill “I have got to take this.” Hope first made her way to her crutches and took one of them, that way she was able to walk fast (out of earshot).  
Jill looked surprised at the keeper, she still couldn’t believe how fast Hope progressed. She thought Hope would be paralyzed forever, but after the stunt she did at one of the last USWNT games. She was also a bit curious as to whom Hope was talking to. From the look on Hope’s face when she read the caller’s name she would guess someone important. She used the time Hope was making the phone call to quickly take some notes. Hope came back and they talked for a while, before Jill had to go again. Hope had the day off but she decided to exercise in her own gym/ exercise room.  
The following day Hope packed her bag, wheelchair and crutches and called a cab.  
A couple hours later she arrives in Kansas City. 

 

“Kell, what are you up to?”  
“Just hanging out in the park, clearing my head before the game”  
“Are their many people around you?”  
Kelley found that a bit a weird question and started looking around. “No, not that many. Why?”  
That’s when she spotted a very familiar person. Hope had to hold the phone an arm length away to prevent permanent hearing damage. Kelley took off and almost dropped her phone. Without thinking Kelley jumped onto Hope, who had to put back a few steps and clearly had trouble keeping herself and Kelley from falling.  
After the hug Kelley felt Hope’s legs shake and remembered, she quickly let go and once she was with her two feet back onto the ground she hugged Hope.   
“What are you doing here?”  
“I’m here to support my girlfriend in a very important match”  
Kelley grins “And I still have to say thanks for your birthday presents”  
“You can still do that when I get back home”  
“About that, we need to talk”  
Kelley cringed, she hated those words, nothing good has ever followed.  
“You know I have been busy with the foundation the last weeks. So when they asked if I was interesting in showing a few kids our training center and play some sport I said yes.”  
Kelley smiled, she knew Hope had been wanting to do something like that. She liked that Hope read every single story that someone wrote to her, she even liked it more since she replied to them all. Sometimes Hope was busy till very late and that she didn’t like very much.  
“That’s great “  
“The downside to this is that I’m going to miss your birthday”  
Kelley pouted, since she had missed Hope’s birthday she had hoped they would spent her birthday together.  
“But I’ll make it up to you once you won the championship”

They talked about a lot of thing until Hope asked after a while “How many people know you are out here?”  
“None, they know I went out but they don’t know where to”  
“You do know that is not very safe” Hope said in an exaggerated tone.  
“Yeah yeah, mom I’ll let someone know the next time but then again then you cannot surprise me like this. How did you even know I was here?”  
“You always search for water the day before the game to clear your head.”  
For the remaining of the time they just cuddled and enjoyed each other’s company.   
Kelley’s phone rang, her roomie Carm, telling her she needed to be back for the briefing.  
Kelley was about to take of when she turned back around and asked “Can I see you before the game?”  
“I don’t know? Can you?”  
Kelley smiled, she gave Hope a last kiss before running back to the hotel. She totally had forgotten the briefing so she had to hurry.  
Hope just looked at Kelley and wondered how it was possible she loves that woman so much.


	13. Chapter 13

Kelley was smiling during the whole briefing.

After the briefing Kelley went back to her room. Unfortunately for her Carm had picked out this moment to ask her about the prewrap note and many other things. Kelley received a text from Hope and Carm couldn’t help noticing the smile on Kelley’s face when she read the text. “The person you were willing to go through a tirade from Laura for. Is one lucky person.” “Yeah she is” Kelley answered absently still busy with answering Hope’s text. It took a while for Kelley to realize what she just said. She looked up at Carm, not that she was ashamed of telling her teammates she was dating another woman but now that she confirmed she was in a relationship Carm was probably going to ask further. Carm sat down on the edge of her bed, facing Kelley “ So can I assume she is not a teammate” “She is not a teammate” “So she is not the one that gave you that black eye” Kelley smiled as she thought back about it, it wasn’t really one of her brightest moves but if her mind is thinking about Hope she tends to forget her surroundings. Especially if you are about to forgot your girlfriend’s birthday and she had to look who was calling her. _Guess I’m not that good of a multitasker._ Carm’s look changed when Kelley didn’t answer. Carm is quite a protective person over her friends. If someone dares to harm her friends, she will make sure they regret it and never do it again. “Technically she didn’t.” Carm looked confused. “I was thinking about her and didn’t pay attention to my surroundings, certainly not to a certain door and banged right into it. So technically she didn’t give me the black eye.” Carm shakes her head and laughs, _Off course, that can only happen to Kelley._ Carm tries to find out some more things about this person but she doesn’t really get much from Kelley.

 

 

GAME DAY

Hope entered the stadium and hopes she was not going to be recognized. She still needed to walk with crutches and knew she was probably going to draw a lot of attention. Hope had brought along a homeless man. She had invited him to dinner earlier and got to know him. She not only used them because two people always get less attention than just one lonely person. She also really wanted to help this guy. He is a veteran and some of his stories reminded her of the stories her father used to tell. So by the time they had made their way to the stadium she had already taken care of some things including a place for him to work and to go to treatment. He never sought proper care after he was diagnosed with a light form of PTSD. Hope still had the number of some old veterans (comrades of her father). Although her father had been a Vietnam veteran, apart from his stories she was never really interested in the army, navy or air force. So she was surprised when Kelley revealed she also came from a military family. Hope was glad she didn’t tell Kelley about her father, otherwise Kelley might have wondered why she didn’t know the difference between a navy base and army post.

 

He knew a lot of the game but he didn’t know much of the women’s game. He didn’t know any of the players. It was hard to see them lose. Certainly since this was the Reign’s last chance to qualify for the championship. Hope really enjoyed her day with Scott and planned on checking up on him from time to time. The team made it back to the hotel, a bit disappointed by the loss. They had to win today to secure a spot in the championship semi-finals. Kelley also wonders who the man with whom Hope had been talking to all game.

They go out with the national team players. It still feels a bit strange for Kelley, after all she doesn’t really know them really well. But she enjoys herself, it is also weird knowing they knew Hope before she got paralyzed. One moment they talk about Hope and Kelley almost tells them what she knows but luckily she reminded herself they didn’t know she knows Hope. They wondered how she was doing. But once they remembered Kelley was with them, they changed subject. Not that they don’t want to talk about it with Kelley but Hope always was kind of a private person and it seems weird to be talking about her with someone Hope doesn’t know. Little did they know.

 

They headed back to the hotel and Kelley went to her room, Carm was already sleeping. Kelley quickly wrote a note, saying she was doing some training, hoping Carm wouldn’t wake up before 6am. She grabbed some stuff and headed back out. She knocked on a door and soon heard someone making her way the door. Kelley was pulled inside the moment the door opened and found herself pinned against the back of the door. She dropped the stuff she was carrying the moment she felt Hope’s hands on her body. Kelley has no idea how she did it but she suddenly feels Hope has removed her shirt. It had been way too long according to Kelley and she really got lost in Hope’s touch. It still amazed her how soft/caring but full of passion Hope’s touches were. Hope knew they had to move and fast, her legs were shaking and there was no way she was going to be able to hold on for much longer. She still held Kelley with one arm and the other one was leaning heavily on the crutch. The other crutch fell onto the ground. They made their way to the bed. While Kelley sat down she managed to get Hope’s shirt off. Hope took off Kelley’s pants in exchange. Somehow Kelley managed to get rid of het shoes (and socks) on her way to the bed. Hope takes her time to admire Kelley for a moment and Kelley cracks a joke about Hope being old, 30, and needing to take a break. This provokes a reaction out of Hope and Hope is determined to let Kelley see and more specifically show Kelley that she isn’t old.   


 

The following morning, Kelley’s alarm was set way too early but she had to go back to her room. Hope was still sleeping, Kelley traced a random pattern alongside Hope side. Then looking at Hope’s naked body she remembers last night and a blush comes onto her cheeks. After a while her hands moves more to Hope’s abdomen. Hope started to wake up and that is really one of Kelley’s favorite moments, the moment just before and after Hope wakes up. In that moment she is the most adorable (according to Kelley). They cuddle for a while. “I’m going to miss you. When will you be back?” “Don’t really know yet but I hope I will be back before your game against the Dash” Kelley nodded, she really didn’t like that Hope would be gone for her birthday. “And then I’ll make up for missing your birthday” “I was not thinking about that” Kelley tries to sound convincing “You so were” Hope kisses Kelley’s blush cheeks and pushes her softly out of the bed “you should go back to the team.” Kelley kisses Hope one more time before rolling out of bed and looking for her clothes. She leaves the room within a couple minutes, with Hope never leaving Kelley out of her sight till Kelley closed the door. Kelley sneaks back into her room. She takes away the note and takes a shower. Carm is still asleep but she should be up soon so she won’t mind.

 

 

“If you don’t want everyone to know you got laid last night you might want to wipe that dumb smile off your face” Carm whispers in her ear before taking place in a chair facing Kelley. Kelley’s jaw fell in shock. Carm just smirks. A few minutes later Kelley and the rest of the reign board the plane that takes them back to Seattle and Hope steps onto a flight to Florida Hope was glad she could sit down, her legs were killing her. Guess last night was a bit too much for her not totally recovered legs.

 

The Reign arrives in Seattle and Kelley hears a very familiar voice. She looks around and suddenly takes off, the others look surprised at their rookie. But then again you never know what to expect with Kelley. “Mom, Dad” Kelley yelled, a few people turned around. “What are you doing here?” Kelley asks once she hugged both her parents and her sister. “We wanted to surprise you.” The O’Hara’s came to Seattle to surprise Kelley for her birthday but guess they are the once that were surprised. They didn’t know the Reign would now be coming back from Kansas City. Eventually Karen and Dan took a cab to their Hotel and Erin came along with the team. Jerry couldn’t get leave from work. The bus would bring the team plus Erin to the stadium and from there out Kelley would take Hope’s car back to their home. Erin stays with Kelley at Kelley’s apartment (At least that is what their parents think). Erin gets along with the team and Pinoe offers the both of them a ride home, knowing Kelley doesn’t owe a car. “We’ll be fine, It’s not that far and I like to stretch my legs after the flight” Pinoe asks one more time to be sure before she makes her way to her girlfriend that is waiting for her. Kelley and Erin hang around the training complex for a bit longer. Kelley wanted to be sure no one (from the team) saw her getting into Hope’s car, not that they would know it is Hope’s car. But she knew she would have a hard time trying to find some story that sounded believable and she hated to lie to them.

The ride home Kelley asked Erin about what she did since they last saw each other. It had only been a couple of day so by the time Kelley pulled up on the driveway she was up to date on her sister’s life. She gave the key of the house to her sister and carried both their bags inside, it is something she always did whenever her sister came to visit. Erin still knew her way around the house and took over the bag from Kelley once inside. She made her way to the guest bedroom and started unpacking the little she had brought along. Meanwhile Kelley puts her bag down in the laundry room, she was going to take care of that later. She first texted Hope and then made her way to the kitchen, she was starving. Erin briefly asks about the team, hearing her sister talk about soccer for so many years she knew quite a lot about it.

That evening, Erin and Kelley are both sitting in the couch. “When are you going to tell them?” Erin asks while petting Capt. Sully “I don’t know yet. I fear their reaction” Erin nodded, Kelley was right, if Kelley told her about her relationship with Hope and she didn’t meet Hope and got to know her (a bit) in person than she probably would have reacted in a totally different way. First of all Hope is much older and second Hope’s reputation doesn’t really do her any good. “Maybe you should wait till they can meet Hope to tell it” “Maybe, but if they disapprove in front of Hope, she will really be hurt. You might not tell but she really is sensitive for that kind of things. Maybe something happened in the past, don’t really know” Erin didn’t really know what to say, she didn’t know Hope that well but she could imagine what would happen. Once she knew of the relationship, she googled Hope and a lot of things weren’t pretty.

“I just hope they get to know her before they judge, she really is an amazing person” Kelley softly says. Erin hopes to, in the short time she has get Hope to know. She has seen how Hope has an influence, a good one, on Kelley. She has seen that Hope really cares for her sister and that she is nowhere near the person the media tells she is.  


Kelley is tired and she has a training tomorrow morning so they call it an early night. Erin stays up a bit longer, petting Leo and just thinking about these last couple of hours. She looked around, her sister had grown up and that realization took Erin by surprise.

 

The next day Kelley is woken up by her sister yelling “HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!” After a quick breakfast the two sisters make their way (by bike) to the training fields. Since Kelley is always the first one to arrive, she and her sister play some with friendly 1-v-1. Once the others start to arrive Erin makes her way to a bench at the sideline. Erin can see Kelley’s game really improved a lot these past couple of months. But Hope’s trainings probably did a greater job than these trainings. Not that these trainings aren’t tough and on a high level but Erin had seen Kelley’s training with Hope and the way Hope managed to get Kelley to see some things was special and rare. Hope also seemed to know an awful lot on how to improve as a forward. Maybe that was because she normally is looking for ways to stop a forward that she knows how to improve as a forward.

The defenders have a break and a dark curly haired woman makes her way to Erin. Erin quickly tries to remember the name of that player. _Wasn’t it something like Carm? Wait is she the one that knows Kelley has a girlfriend? This is confusing._ “Hi, you must be Erin. I didn’t really have a chance to introduce myself yesterday. I’m Carmelina by the way but just call me Carm, everyone does.” “Hi, yeah I know, my sister has told me a lot about you.” Erin says and smiles, in meantime she tries to remember what Kelley told her about Carm. They talk for a while and Carm tries to get some more info about Kelley’s girlfriend. She is not that kind of person that wants to know all this for the gossip. But She is that kind of person that wants to make sure her friends are safe. Although she didn’t really get any new info she did get the impression that Erin met Kelley’s girlfriend and that she seemed alright and for that Carm is glad and relieved.  


 

At the end of the training Kelley doesn’t have to do an exercise since it is her birthday but she does do it anyway. The team once again congratulates her on her birthday and Kelley is sure they have something planned for next game. After training the two sisters meet up with their parents. They first go on lunch and then Kelley leads them around the city. She is glad Hope gave her some tours around the city, otherwise there is no way she would have known all this. Her parents ask her if they can see her apartment. Kelley doesn’t really know what to say but luckily her sister was there for her. Once her parents’ attention was diverted Kelley mouthed a ‘thank you’ to her sister.

The sisters went home to change for dinner, and Kelley wanted to take a nap before they head back out. She was a bit tired from the training. She settled for checking up on Hope and just doing stuff with her sister. With the help of Erin, Hope manages to surprise Kelley (with a gift, unfortunately she really wasn’t be able to be there). Kelley was Skyping with Hope at that moment so Hope also saw Kelley’s reaction. Kelley does try to wrap her mind around how Hope managed to hide her gift. .Kelley’s surfboard was damaged in the move and somehow, Kelley isn’t really sure but she suspects her sister of giving Hope the insight, Hope bought Kelley’s dream surfboard. Kelley does let Hope promise she will try it out with her. Hope laughs, knowing how terrible she was in surfing before she got paralyzed. The thing that surprised Kelley the most was the small box that was standing on her nightstand. She opened it and saw the bracelet she loved so much. On one of their walks through the city Kelley’s eye had fallen on this simple but elegant bracelet. She did look at it but she hadn’t specifically talked about it. And that was one of the things she loved about Hope too. She notices the small things.

 

Off course her parents ask her at dinner if she has met someone special. Kelley doesn’t deny this but changes the subject. A few moments later her parents ask her about her off-season plans. To e honest Kelley didn’t really thought about that. She just assumed she would spend it with Hope, totally forgetting her parents would want to have her around.

 

GAME DAY

Hope makes it back just in time to watch the game against the Dash. She literally walks into the stadium when the referee blows the whistle, she takes some seat in the back. She makes her way to Jess at half time. She also spots Erin and who she believes are Kelley’s parents. Jess talks about some surgery that might get her back walking. Hope is once again reminded that she got lucky, she got to walk again. Many others aren’t that lucky. She feels the same desire to walk again she had a time ago. The game ends in a win for the Reign, Kelley didn’t really play that much. Since they lost their game against the FCKC they could no longer qualify for the championship finale and they let other players that didn’t really got a chance in the regular season play the game, for as long as they maintain the win. After the game Hope talks with Jess, parents about her last couple of days and that she thinks anout doing something similar in Seattle. Jess’ parents are really for that idea. Hope asks about the surgery Jess has been talking about and she hears what she feared. There are a lot complications that could occur, Jess’ parents didn’t really like that idea and hoped they could get that idea out of their daughter’s mind. In meantime Kelley took some pictures with some fans and took a quick shower. Hope was nervous, she was going to meet Kelley’s parents for the first time. She hoped the parents have the same reaction as Erin but she knew that that chance wasn’t big. She is waiting for Kelley. Hope is also disappointed. She had hoped she was going to be fit enough to stand her without crutches but the last couple of days and all the travelling had taken their toll on her legs. Her nerves calm down a bit when two all too familiar arms wrap around her waist. Hope leans back a bit, into the touch and a smile appears on her face. Kelley chuckles at the fact that Hope is so nervous, but to be honest she herself is also really nervous. Erin would come with their parents in a couple of minutes. Kelley didn’t really know what the reaction of her parents would be. She had come out a long time ago so she wasn’t afraid of that part, it was for all the rest that she was afraid.

Erin and her parents arrive. Erin greets Hope and the parents look questioning. Kelley introduces Hope to her parents as her girlfriend, and given it might have been an awkward moment but they had to meet at some time and Kelley wanted to just be over with it. She loves Hope very much and all she wants is for her parents to give Hope a chance and accept her. Kelley was surprised by the reaction of her parents. She didn’t expect them to burst out like that and walk away. Erin ran after them but caught up with Kelley and Hope a few minutes later. In meantime Kelley had tried to reassure Hope, but it was already too late, the damage was done. On the way back to their home Hope is silent, it is almost as if she isn’t there. Erin notices it too. Once they are home Hope quickly tells them she is exhausted from the travel and goes to bed. Once Hope is out of sight Kelley falls into the arms of her sister, not only did her parents (especially her mom) not approve of her relationship but also her girlfriend was hurting (a lot) and Kelley feared she might lose her. She had never seen Hope that much down/broken, not even when she was still in her wheelchair. Once she has calmed Kelley down a bit Erin goes to her room and thinks about how she can convince her parents otherwise. She first wanted to go straight away to her parents but realized that was probably not such a good idea. She wanted them to calm down before she tried to change their opinion.

She stands in the bathroom and looks in the mirror. Not really liking what she sees. After brushing her teeth she takes her crutches, she hates them. But she needs them to make her way to the bed. Once in bed she lies down and a tear slowly rolls off her cheek. When Kelley enters the room she pretends to be asleep. Kelley changes and brushes her teeth before also getting into bed. She knows Hope isn’t asleep and is relieved that once she lies down and snuggles a bit into her Hope holds on to her, like she is afraid she might lose her and that combined with the recollection of what happened in the past hour resulted in a tear rolling down her cheek. All she could do for now was hold onto Hope and pray she wouldn’t lose Hope.


	14. Chapter 14

Kelley suddenly wakes up and almost jumps out of bed, effectively waking the person next to her. “What’s wrong?” Kelley’s mind tells her that is not Hope’s voice, she panics. But she is relieved to see her sister next to her. She is reminded to the fact that after dinner with their parents they sat on the bed and talked to each other like they used to do, apparently they had fallen asleep. Erin switched on the light and saw a few tears rolling down Kelley’s face. Erin swung her arms around her little sister and held her close. After a while Erin says “It’s just a nightmare, it is not real”  


“What did you dream about?” “Hope” Erin didn’t really know what Kelley could have been dreaming about Hope that caused her to be this upset. “I dreamt about Hope meeting our parents” Eventually Kelley managed to tell the story and Erin had compassion for her sister. They all knew Kelley is gay so that shouldn’t really be an issue. Hope is a couple years older but even that. What might be the biggest issue is Hope’s reputation. But even that, once her parents really got to know Hope they should see that Hope is nowhere near the villain she is put out to be (by the media). …

 

Erin holds her sister till she falls back asleep, Kelley had a game later today so she should be well rested and not thinking too much about potential problems between Hope and her parents. After a while Erin also falls asleep.

 

At breakfast (given the time it actually should be lunch) Erin and Kelley talk about Kelley’s nightmare. They decide that because of Kelley’s nightmare, it might be for the best to postpone ‘the meet the parents’ till the day after the game.

Eventually Kelley has to prepare for the game so Erin takes Leo out for a walk before meeting up with her parents. She wanders around the city with her parents, they ask her a lot of questions about Kelley’s girlfriend. Erin knew they were going to do  that. She knew it was not up to her to tell Kelley is dating her but she knew what she had to say. She knew that her words would have a big influence on her parents thoughts since she knows Kelley’s girlfriend. Really knows her.

 

Hope makes it back just in time to watch the game against the Dash. She literally walks into the stadium when the referee blows the whistle, she takes some seat in the back. She makes her way to Jess at half time. She also spots Erin and a couple who she believes are Kelley’s parents. Jess talks about some surgery that might get her back walking. Hope is once again reminded that she got lucky, she got to walk again. Many others aren’t that lucky. She feels Jess has the same desire to walk again like she had a time ago. The game ends in a win, Kelley didn’t really play that much. Since they lost their game against the FCKC they could no longer qualify for the championship finale and they let other players that didn’t really got a chance in the regular season play the game, for as long as they maintain the win. After the game Hope talks with Jess, parents about her last couple of days and that she thinks about doing something similar in Seattle. Jess’ parents are really for that idea. Hope asks about the surgery Jess has been talking about and she hears what she feared. There are a lot complications that could occur, Jess’ parents didn’t really like that idea and hoped they could get that idea out of their daughter’s mind. In meantime Kelley took some pictures with some fans and took a quick shower.  


Hope goes back home, alone. Kelley followed with Erin. Hope makes sure to prepare something small to eat for the sister. Knowing Kelley, she is always up to eat something after a game. “How was Florida?” Erin asks her while Kelley is eating the sandwich “It was great, also a bit depressing to meet all these great kids, knowing their chances of walking again are nihil or almost nihil. But to see them laugh and enjoy life and just act like nothing is wrong” Kelley smiled she liked how Hope always spoke with so much passion, her time with those kids not only helped the kids, it had also been good for Hope.

It is already pretty late so they call it a night. Once in bed Kelley lies on her side and watches Hope “I’m glad you are home” Hope smiled. But she couldn’t shake the thought that something was off with Kelley. “What’s wrong?” Hope asked softly _How does she do that?_ Kelley thinks “Nothing, I’m just nervous about my parents meeting you” “Shouldn’t I be the one that is supposed to be nervous” Kelley laughs “Yeah, but I guess …” Kelley trails off.  She was not going to tell Hope about the nightmare. “Babe, it will be all right, from what you’ve told me they are pretty awesome and understanding...” Hope holds Kelley’s hand “And whatever happens the most important thing is that we are happy and that I love you, no one’s opinion about us can change that.” Kelley thought about that for a moment and smiled, off course Hope would know what to say. Kelley closed the distant between them and kisses Hope passionately. “I love you too” she wraps her arm around Hope and falls asleep seconds later. To be honest Hope is nervous. She really doesn’t want to screw this up, she really loves Kelley and hopes that Kelley’s parents don’t disapprove. Hope places a soft kiss on top of Kelley’s head and falls asleep minutes later. With a smile on her face. She once again is holding Kelley. Skype is a great invention to see each other when you are apart but nothing is better than talking to the person you love and holding her afterwards.

 

The following morning Hope makes her way downstairs and finds Erin already sitting at the table eating breakfast. “Good morning” , Erin looks up. “Good morning. I took the liberty to set the table and start eating already, I was kind of hungry and I didn’t really know  around what time you guys would be coming down” “Not a problem, Make yourself at home.” Erin smiles, Hope really has been very generous and kind. This was the second time in a short time Hope took her in her home, without complaining.

 A whole while later a still half asleep Kelley walks into the kitchen “Morning” She mumbles. Hope and Erin had already finished breakfast but Erin needed to finish some documents for work and Hope had some work to do for her foundation so they were both in the kitchen, typing on their computers. Hope closes her laptop and sets it aside. “Did you sleep well?” “The best in days” Kelley says with a smile, she really missed having Hope next to her.

The reign has a training in the afternoon, normally Hope and Kelley would train around the midday but with Kelley’s parents in town it seemed a good idea to skip that training. Kelley really didn’t want to be away from Hope once again but then again it had been so long since she has seen her parents. Hope goes to the gym while Erin and Kelley hang out with their parents. After working-out Hope goes to the Starbucks, hoping Kate can take a couple minutes off. She could really use Kate’s advice.

 

Kelley quickly makes her way home to grab her training gear. She is surprised Hope isn’t there but doesn’t think much of it, at training she works even harder than normally, trying to prove she deserves a spot on the starting XI in the game against the Spirit. Off course Laura notices that, she really likes Kelley, not only as a player but also as a person. Kelley is always there to help others and her mentality is just … (Laura doesn’t really know how to call it). She knows that Kelley will become a great player. Kelley has a lot of talent, with the proper training she can be one of the best players the USA has ever seen.

                                                

After training Kelley stops by the Starbucks, she is glad Kate is there and talks with her for a while before making her way back home to drop off her gear. Kelley still needed to text her sister to ask where they were, but she wanted to have a moment with Hope before she left again. Eventually that moment became a walk with Hope and Leo. They walk the trail down to the water. Hope didn’t want to take her crutches with her, if she didn’t walk without she was never going to get rid of them. Kelley did manage to persuade Hope in taking along a walking stick, just in case.

They walk outside and Hope grabs Kelley’s hand and holds it. Kelley looks at their hands and smiles before looking up to Hope. This is the first time they were able to do that. Kelley was carrying a little backpack with some water, the walking stick and some snacks. They enjoyed the walk. Kelley did try to subtle keep an eye on Hope, it looked twice that she was going to fall but Hope managed to recover before hitting the ground. Once they arrived at the water Leo started running in circles around Hope. Hope picks up the first stick she finds and throws it into the water, Leo runs after it and jumps into the water.

Hope and Kelley drink and eat a bit, before playing with Leo. Somehow Hope and Kelley both ended up in the water. It was early august so the water wasn’t too cold. They were just goofing around when they heard someone clear their throat. They both looked up and saw Erin, they also noticed Kelley’s parents behind Erin. Hope almost dropped Kelley into the water but she manages to pull Kelley further onto her feet and they make their way out of the water. Kelley greets first her sister. “I tried to walk away once I spotted you but they heard you laugh, I had no idea you guys would be here” Erin whispers to Kelley. “It’s all right” Kelley whispers back. Kelley greets her parents and Hope slowly walks towards the O’Hara’s. Hope wishes they had brought a towel with them so she could at least have dried her hands. Kelley nervously introduced Hope to her parents, hoping her parents would not react like she dreamed. Erin squeezed her hand, showing her support. Dan and Karen where surprised, from what they heard of Erin they knew Kelley was dating someone older than her. They just never expected her daughter to be dating the Hope Solo.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> second and last update of the day

After the introduction Hope stands their a bit awkwardly. Thankfully Erin is there, she suggest they make their way back up, towards Hope’s and Kelley’s house. Karen is surprised to see Hope walking with a walking stick. She wonders why Hope would be walking with a walking stick. It was mostly Erin that was talking, Hope was very thankful for that. They reach the house and Dan and Karen are surprised to see where their daughter lives. Once inside Hope and Kelley excuse themselves to put on some dry clothes. Meanwhile Dan and Karen look around and question Erin.  

Hope and Kelley come back down a couple minutes later. Karen hugs Hope “I still had to greet you properly” Karen gives as an explanation. Hope smiles and shakes Dan’s hand. Kelley can tell her mom is a bit sceptic but apart from that they are friendly to Hope and seem to be accepting. They sit in the living room, once Hope comes back with the drinks Karen asks them about their first meeting. Hope just holds Kelley’s hand for a while and let her tell the story. After a while Hope excused herself to make dinner, she could hear the O’Hara’s talking in the living room, but she couldn’t understand what they were saying.  


Hope puts the casserole in the oven and makes her way back. She leaves the walking stick in the kitchen. She sits down next to Kelley and tries to make out what they are talking about. They were talking about something that happened in the family so Hope didn’t really know what to say. After a while Kelley changed the subject to something Hope could talk about.

 

After dinner Kelley gave her parents a ride to the hotel. Erin suggested they could take a cab or she could walk them back but after receiving a glare from her mom Kelley quickly said she could giver her parents a ride. Once she arrives their and steps out of the car to say goodbye they start to question her about Hope. So eventually they make their way to a bench, facing a small pond to continue their talk. Meanwhile Erin and Hope clean up. By the time Kelley comes back Hope and Erin had already cleaned everything. Erin calls it an early night, she had been walking around the city for all day and was tired. Hope and Kelley also call it an early night and go to their room.

In bed Kelley and Hope talk about the last couple of hours. Kelley thinks it went pretty well, at least much better than her nightmare. “What nightmare?” Hope asks, Kelley could sense a bit of worry in Hope’s tone. Kelley tells Hope about her nightmare. “Why didn’t you tell me?” Hope asks “I didn’t want to make you nervous, after all it was just a stupid dream” Hope looks Kelley in the eye, “You can tell me everything, even if it is just a stupid dream. Even if you think I will get hurt or worried by it, if it hurts you, you should tell so I can take care of it” Kelley doesn’t reply, she just kisses Hope softly. The following morning Kelley wakes up before Hope. Once she has woken up a bit more she looks at Hope. “What are you staring at?” Hope mumbles, still half asleep. _How does she do that? She didn’t even open her eyes._ “I’m not staring” Kelley answers. Hope opens her eyes and looks into Kelley’s eyes. “Yes you are”, Kelley smiles “I was just admiring your beauty” Hope smirks. “No really…” Kelley thinks about a hundred ways to describe Hope’s beauty, she only realizes she was saying them out loud when she sees Hope blush. Kelley chuckled a bit. Kelley leaned in and kissed Hope on both cheeks. “You are just too cute” Kelley says and walks towards the bathroom. Kelley has training in the morning, Hope has physiotherapy and that leaves Erin once again alone. She works a bit and takes Leo out for a walk. She would meet up with her parents afterwards.

 

Hope passes by the Starbucks on her way home and thanks Kate for her advice. Off course Kate wants to know all the details but there are too many people inside for her to be able to take a few minutes off. But Kate tells her Hope will need to spill all the details next time she is here or otherwise she will make Kelley tell them. Hope just shakes her head and quickly walks outside.

 

Hope gets a call, It is Jill, so Hope sits down on a bench. After the call Hope walks back home and takes her swimming gear. On her way to the swimming pool Jill’s words keep wandering around in her mind.  


After training Kelley meets up with her parents. They ask if Hope is going to join them but Kelley tells them she has Physiotherapy and then another session at pool so she is busy and afterwards will be too tired to join them. It is nice having her family together again, but she does miss her brother. She makes a mental note to call him once she gets back home.

 

Once Kelley and Erin arrive at the house they come across a sleeping Hope on the couch. Kelley wants to wake Hope but Erin stops her, she wants to have some alone time with her sister. Erin and Kelley enjoy an evening swimming session. Hope comes out of the house with a couple of drinks and snacks. She sits down in one of the pool chairs and takes out a book. After a while Kelley pulls herself out of the pool. Kelley in bikini, it is a sight that still catches Hope’s breath every time. Erin catches it and shakes her head.   


It is already late, Kelley has a game tomorrow so she calls it an early night. Hope does some exercises in the pool. Erin calls her boyfriend and lies down on the chair for a moment. Hope takes off the back brace and sits down for a moment. Erin looks at Hope for a moment and is amazed by Hope’s body. _If I was gay I would totally do her._ Hope’s phone rings she answers it and walks towards the edge of her garden, looking at the lake beneath. Erin quickly shakes the thoughts out of her mind, after all Hope still is her sister’s girlfriend After the phone call Hope tells Erin she is going to sleep but that she can stay down here if she wants to, she just needs to close the door when she comes inside the house. Erin nods and tells Hope she is just going to stay outside for a few more minutes.

Once Hope lies down in bed Kelley quickly rolls over and snuggles into Hope. Hope smiles, places a soft kiss on Kelley’s head and places an arm around Kelley before falling asleep seconds later.

 

GAME DAY (last home game, Seattle Reign vs Washington Spirit)

Hope has to be in physiotherapy till 1600 so she will not see Kelley before the game. Kelley sleeps in, hangs around with her sister till she has to go to the game. At the game, Dan and Karen are surprised to not see Hope. When they ask Erin about it she points to a section closer to the pitch.. They see her sitting next to a girl in a wheelchair and … Erin explains her story a bit, (Not saying that the main reason Hope doesn’t sit with them is because the other players cannot know about the relationship.) And since Erin saw Ashlyn looking into the stands she figured Hope thought it would be safer to sit with Jess.

She is surprised to see Hope sitting in her wheelchair but then remembers she was almost all day working on getting the strength in her legs back, her legs probably were too tired to be able to walk to the stadium.

At halftime Dan makes his way over to Hope. “You can come sit with us if you want” “Thanks Dan, I would love to but I can’t” He looks confused at Hope. Hope looks around making sure no one can hear them. “I want Kelley to have a fair shot at a spot on the national team. If they know we have a relationship chances are they are not going to call in Kelley for another camp or people will think she only was called in because she is my girlfriend. Kelley is one hell of a player and I think it would be a big loss if people don’t see how good she really is. So for now they can’t now” After a while Dan nodded, Hope just gained a few points in his eyes. Dan makes his way back up and sits next to his wife, squeezing her hand softly.

The game ends in a tie. Kelley scores the lone goal for the Reign. After the game Kelley talks a bit with Ashlyn and Ali and whishes them good luck in the championship semi-finals and finale. While her players are signing and taking pictures with the fans Laura sees her chance to speak to Hope and goes for it. Laura makes her way to where Hope is seated and sees Hope talking to a girl. She slowly walks to them. The girl sees her and freaks a bit out. Hope looks up curiously. “Hi” “Hi” Hope replies but Jess starts rambling to Laura before she or Laura can say anything, Laura and Hope both smile. Laura waits till she is finished and talks a bit with Jess. Then Jess’ parents come and take her with them. Laura wants to sit down next to Hope but Hope grabs her walking stick and walks towards the now empty seats behind them, Laura follows her.

They sit down a bit more to the back. Hope is not really sure why Laura would want to talk to her but figured she would know in a couple minutes. After a while Laura excuses herself, she has to go back to her team. Hope remains seated, thinking about all the things Laura said. _First Jill and now Laura…._ 20 minutes later Ali walks onto the pitch and sees someone sitting in the bleachers, normally everyone should have left already. She is a bit worried something might have happened to that person. She decides to see if that person needs any help, she drops her bag and makes her way up. She is halfway when she recognizes that person.  


She freezes for a moment, not really sure if she should keep going. Hope hasn’t spotted her yet. But then she continues her path.

“Hi” Hope looks up, only now to notices Ali. “Hi” Ali sits down next to Hope. “I didn’t know you would be here today.” “Well I promised Jess I would be here so…” _Jess? Has Hope a girlfriend? Didn’t even know she was into girls._ Ali smiles “Good game, you almost took the three points home.” “Thanks, we would have liked to get a win and could really have used the points but that new striker is just too good.” “O’Hara?” Hope asks, it felt weird to not just say Kelley. “Yeah. I only met her briefly at NT camp, we did cross path sometimes in scrimmages but otherwise since she is a forward I didn’t see her that much. It is quite hard to not notice her though.” Ali pauses for a moment before continuing “she is energetic but she kind off makes your day better, by just hanging around and …..” Ali trails off Hope smiles, knowing that is true “So why are you still up here?” “I was just taking a moment, you know…” this time it is Hope that trails off. Ali nods knowingly, when she tore her ACL a while back she also took a moment from time to time, especially after she saw one of the USWNT games. Ali wasn’t sure if she could ask Hope about when she was coming back so she was glad when Hope started asking her questions about the Spirit. Kelley walked out of the locker room, she walked towards the pitch to see if Hope was still there. She heard voices and stopped dead in her tracks. She spotted Ali sitting next to Hope. Kelley turned around and she hoped Ali didn’t saw her. It was quite unusual for a player to take this way out. So that also makes Kelley wonder why Ali took came this way. _Maybe she spotted Hope during the game._ She quickly makes her way to her parents.

Her parents ask if they shouldn’t wait for Hope but Kelley tells them Hope is catching up with a few old friends and will come home by herself. Ali’s phone buzzes. It is Ashlyn, telling her the team bus is about to leave. “Do you need a ride?” “No I already have one, but thanks” Ali is a bit more confused now. _Jess really might be her girlfriend, but if that’s the case why isn’t she here with Hope? Maybe Hope doesn’t want to be out?_ On her way back Ali keeps thinking about Hope and this Jess so she makes a mental note to look some things up when they are back in the hotel. Hope is glad that Ali didn’t wait for her to accompany her down. To be honest, she wasn’t really sure she could make the walk down. Her legs were really tired from the physiotherapy session earlier today and the way up also had been exhausting. After a while Hope decides to try it anyway. She slowly stands up and puts as much weight as she can on the walking stick. She makes her way down without falling but is glad to be sitting in her wheelchair again. She makes her way out of the stadium. On her way back home she gets a text message from Kelley, asking if everything is all right. Hope answers everything is ok and that she is on her way. She takes the long way though.  


Meanwhile the Spirit have arrived in their hotel. Ali went straight to her room without saying much. Ashlyn found that a bit weird but was called away by Mark. Once in her room she quickly put on her PJ’s and gets into bed. Leaning against the headboard and with her laptop on her knees she searches the internet. After a while she comes across the picture Hope posted of her and Jess and that’s when she realizes. Ali laughed with herself and was glad she didn’t ask Hope if Jess is her girlfriend. Her roomie, Chrystal, found her still sitting like that an hour and half later. A message from Ashlyn appeared on her screen. Ali opened it, she read it and realized she might have come over a bit angry after the game. To be honest she was just thinking about Hope and didn’t really pay much attention to Ashlyn or any of the other girls. Ali quickly replies telling her everything is all right, and that she will see Ashlyn at breakfast. Little did she know that Ashlyn had been waiting in the hallway. Ashlyn had hoped Ali would come out of her room so they could talk. She sends a good night and she walked disappointed back to her room. The Reign’s next game isn’t till the 19th so they have a lot of time to prepare for their final game. A game against the thorns. A game they want to win.


	16. Chapter 16

Kelley’s parents and sister left a few days ago. Kelley is at the gym, working-out. While cooling down on the bike she replies to Tobin’s text. They end up texting for 20 minutes. On her way back home she remembered she needed to call her brother. After calculating the hour difference she figured she still had time to call him once she got him. She accelerated a bit, her legs already a bit tired from her work out but she got home in a record time. She quickly puts her bike in the garage. She walks inside and quickly drops her bag in the laundry room. She than walks to the living room and jumps onto the couch. Kelley takes her phone and dials her brother’s number. Hope came home half an hour later finding Kelley lying upside down half on the couch, half on the ground. She walks to the laundry room and sees Kelley’s bag. After emptying her own bag she opens Kelley’s bag and empties it. Hope walks back into the room only to see Kelley sitting in the couch with one arm around Leo and Sully sitting on Hope’s legs. She smiles and goes to her office to give Kelley some privacy.  


Kelley is glad she heard her brother, it had been way too long. She takes Sully, who had fallen asleep, with her on her search for Hope. She found Hope in her office. Hope was surprised to see Sully half asleep in Kelley’s arms. He never used to be clingy He hated being petted by anyone else than her. And even she had only the right to pet him for a small amount of time a day.

Kelley sat down on Hope’s lap. Hope swings her arms around Kelley and pets Sully. “What are you working on?” Kelley asks while looking at Hope’s laptop. “I’m thinking about organizing some kind of soccer camp for children in a wheelchair, like I did in Florida but now in Seattle.” Kelley nodded while looking at the laptop “I think that’s a great idea. I’m sure Jess will love that” Kelley leaned back some more enjoying being close to Hope. “How was your work-out?” “It was great, I ended up doing an extra twenty minutes off cooling down.” “Why?” “I was texting Tobin and kind of forgot time. But it was also a good thing because that made me realize I had to call my brother”. _That is who she was talking with._ “How is he?” “He’s good, he was sorry for not being able to make it down to Seattle for my birthday. And he told me I should take you with me when I go visiting him. He wants to see my secret girlfriend Erin and our parents have been talking about.”  Hope smiles and softly kisses Kelley’s cheek.

She than sees a message pop up on her screen, Hope quickly turns Kelley’s head a little bit so she can kiss her on the lips. Kelley turns her body a bit so she can deepen the kiss. Meanwhile Hope uses her feet to move the chair away from the laptop. Kelley was so lost in the kiss she didn’t notice. They only broke away for a second when Capt. Sully meows cause he got stuck between Hope’s and Kelley’s body. Once they separate a bit He quickly jumps off the chair and runs away. Kelley and Hope laugh before leaning back in and continue were they left. But not long after they were once again interrupted. Kelley’s phone rings. ”let it, if it is important they will call back” The caller does call back, Kelley answers the phone and leaves a slightly frustrated Hope behind. After a few seconds Hope grunts, rolls the chair back to the desk and opens the message. She replies to it and closes her laptop. She starts making dinner. A short while later she feels Kelley’s arms slipping around her waist. “Who was it, that person better had a good reason to…” Kelley started laughing and Hope didn’t finish her sentence. “What?” “You sound a bit frustrated babe” Hope looks at Kelley before turning back around. “It was Pinoe, she asked if I wanted to hang out tonight. Her girlfriend was out with some friends and she didn’t want to be alone.” Kelley pressed a kiss between Hope’s shoulder blades before adding “So you will be cooking for your own” Hope turned around “No” Hope says in surprise Kelley had this guilty face and if Hope wasn’t disappointed for having to spent the night alone she might have laughed. “I’m so going to kill Pinoe, first she interrupts our little moment and now she takes you away for the evening” “Aw, are you jealous babe?” “No” Hope said and pouted. Kelley felt guilty but she had already to many times no to Pinoe. Kelley stands on the tips of her toes, still coming an inch or more short to kiss Hope one the lips so she pulls Hope down. “I’ll be back in time” Hope smirked she knew Pinoe well enough that you don’t return home in time after an evening (better said night) out with Pinoe. “Go” Hope said and gently slapped Kelley’s butt “Be careful”

Kelley quickly ran upstairs to change, although she was just going to Pinoe’s place. Kelley was looking at all her cloths, not knowing what to wear. She used the GPS on her phone to guide her to Pinoe’s place. It was an apartment on the other side of the town. She took her bike up the stairs with her, she forgot her lock and she didn’t trust this neighborhood enough to just leave her bike outside without lock on it. Once she had put her bike in the hallway inside Pinoe’s apartment Kelley takes off her jacket. “Really Kelley, your parents didn’t teach you how to wear a shirt properly?” Kelley laughs. Earlier, when she was looking for something not too fancy to wear her eye fell on a shirt that was inside out. She took a clean one, pulled it inside out before putting it on.

 

Hope eats dinner in the living room, she sits on the couch while watching TV. This really sucks. Hope was bored and there were only so many stupid reality shows she could see. Hope decided to call it an early night and go to sleep.

 

By the time Kelley gets back Hope had already been sleeping for hours. Kelley quickly brushes her teeth and changes into a pair of shots, pulls off her shirt and crawls into bed, next to Hope. Hope does put her arm around Kelley but that’s all Kelley get. Kelley places a soft kiss on Hope forehead and lies down, with her head resting on Hope’s shoulder.

 

The next day Hope has physio all day and Kelley has training with the reign in the morning and she will go help out in the homeless shelter in the afternoon. Temperature has been rising so the organization could use all the help they get to give free water to homeless people. Carm was going to come along. After physio Hope went to Starbucks, she missed her daily talks with Kate.

 

By the time Hope came back home Kelley just started cooking dinner. Hope swung her arms around Kelley’s waist “How was your day?” “Training was fun. The afternoon with Carm was also fun, we had a lot of fun on her walk and handed out a lot of water but at the same time I felt …. I mean I live in this beautiful house of yours and there are so many people out there that don’t even have proper water to drink.” Hope checked the stove first before taking Kelley’s hand and leading her to the office. Hope sat Kelley down and opened a document on her laptop. “This is a house downtown. I bought it a couple years ago. It has room to shelter 25 people, …” Hope keeps talking and Kelley is amazed, she didn’t know about this. _If Hope has been doing this for years, how come the media never wrote anything about that?_ And just like that Hope says “The reason why I kept this a secret from the media is because I don’t want to do this so the media writes something nice about me. I do it because I really want to help people, I know 25 isn’t much but it still is something. We are already doing something and that is more than most people.” Kelley was amazed, she kept discovering new things about Hope. Things that might seem so out of character for someone that doesn’t know Hope but for her it was just another piece of the puzzle Hope is. Another reason to love Hope.

 

The next morning Hope and Kelley have another training session planned. Hope knows a lot about Nadine Angerer, the Thorns’ Keeper. She knows how to score on her, she also knows how the Thorn’s key players play.

“No lower, you have to get that shot flying over the ground, if you shoot higher she will get it.” Kelley took the shot again, she totally mishit it. The frustration grew and Hope noticed. But she knew Kelley wasn’t going to give up. She walked to Kelley “Kell, babe, you’ve got it, you know what you need to do, it will work” “If I can’t even make a simple shot on training, how the hell am I going to score against a top keeper in her home stadium?” Hope was surprised by Kelley’s sudden outburst. Hope took a ball and placed it in front of her foot, she knew she was not yet supposed to kick the ball so she sat down next to the ball and grabbed Kelley’s foot. Kelley almost lost her balance. She looked down at Hope. Hope went once more over how she should hit the ball. She traced the area on Kelley’s shoe and the area on the ball. She stood up again and took a few steps back.

Kelley hits it, it is not perfect yet but close enough. Hope smiles smiles, “Do it again” Kelley hits it again this time it is exactly like Hope asked her to shoot the ball. “There is no way she is going to be able to save that ball.” Hope says and Kelley smiled, just a tiny bit. The real smile will come when she scores on Angerer. Hope made Kelley do the shot another 2 times. After that she could take a small drink pause. While Kelley gathered the ball Hope walked towards her bag.   


Kelley puts the ball on the PK spot and takes a few steps back. 200% concentrated she begins her run and the moment before her feet connects with the ball Hope pushes the button of the air horn she was holding behind her back. Kelley, totally surprised by that sound, miss-hits the ball and it flows wide. “What was that?” “A horn” Hope replied like it was the most normal thing in the world “The Thorn’s fans are loud, you will have to learn to block them out. I was planning on getting them here to show you how loud they are but I think an air-horn will do for now. ” Kelley smiles at this, off course Hope would have thought about that.

Kelley prepares for another PK, she also prepares for the horn, and is as surprised to no hear one, she miss-hits the ball a bit, it bounces off the crossbar. She glares at Hope before preparing for the next one, this time Hope already pushes the button while Kelley is still in concentration before taking the steps forward, Kelley takes the steps forward  “BEEEP” she still miss hits it but this time the ball does bounce in the goal. “Really Hope?” “Really”

A few shots later Kelley seems to be able to get less influenced by the sound but Hope sees room for a lot of improvement.

Later that training, Kelley was performing an exercise, Hope was yelling some instructions to her but Kelley didn’t hear her. A ball was within reach, she was maybe not cleared yet to kick a ball she sure as hell can throw one. The ball hit Kelley on her head. “Aw, Hope what the hell” Kelley yells “BLOCK OUT THE FANS NOT YOUR TEAMMATES” Hope yells back. Kelley continues the exercise, trying not to block out Hope but to do lock out the Horn.

Kelley tries her best but with Hope alternating with yelling some instructions and blowing that stupid horn, it wasn’t easy. At the end of the training Kelley realized she has a training with the Reign in just 3 hours. Once home she declared it was nap-time. She dragged Hope to the couch, pushed her onto the couch and snuggles into Hope. Hope woke up and noticed Kelley should have left 10 minutes ago. She quickly wakes Kelley who runs still half asleep upstairs to grab her shorts and shirt. Before running back down, to the car. Once she threw the bag on the passenger’s seat she ran back inside kissed Hope quickly on the lips before running back outside. Hope chuckled and hoped Kelley was awake enough to not get herself killed on the way to the training fields.

 

Kelley was late. There had to be an accident that blocked the whole road on the day she was late. She opens her bag while walking towards the pitch. _Not again_. Kelley pulls off her shirt and she pulls the other shirt inside out on. She steps onto the pitch and is already busy unbuttoning her pants. She sees the others warming up. She never has been late. She quickly puts on her shorts, socks and cleats. She does check the short to make sure no number 1 is on it and is relieved to see a number 19 on it. She quickly makes her way to the others and mixes herself into group. As punishment for being late she has to do 20 sprints and 10 push-ups.  Laura notices Kelley is more tired than normally and tells Kelley she wants to see her after training. Kelley improves her game a bit hopes Laura isn’t going to deny her a spot on the starting eleven for the last match.

 

“She is not going to kick your ass, she is going to say that if you keep wearing your shirts inside out she will tell Dave to print your number on the inside of your jersey. “ Pinoe joked and took off to intercept a ball that was meant for Kim.

 

Kelley jogged towards her bag to gather her stuff before she had to go to Laura. It also bought her some time to get some answers ready. “You were late today” “Yes ma’am I was, No excuse. I’m sorry.” “No excuse?” Laura was a bit surprised by the ma’am part. “I had a training session with Hope this morning, it was more intense than normally, afterwards I took a nap and forgot to put an alarm. And then I arrived here only to notice I took one of Hope’s shirt so I had to wear it inside out….“Laura couldn’t understand the last part. Laura was surprised to hear the Hope and Kelley still train. She knew Hope and Kelley used to train so Kelley got to the level where she was good enough to join the pro team. She just didn’t know they were still training together. Although, like Kelley said, there are no excuses for being late she thought about letting this one slip. Kelley gets home an hour later and she is ready to take another nap.

 

Hope hasn’t planned anything the next day so she wanted to sleep in. But Kelley had other plans. She tries to wake up Hope but that only resulted in Hope pulling her in closer and going back to sleep. “Hope we need to get up” “Ssssht, go back to sleep” Hope mumbled. Kelley tried to get away but Hope held her even closer. Eventually Kelley stops resisting, she thinks about falling back asleep but then she just lies down on Hope.

After a while she comes up with another plan. She starts tickling Hope. Hope’s first reaction is to let go of Kelley so Kelley uses this moment to position herself on top of Hope and pin Hope’s hands above her head. Hope is taking by surprise with this, she had been still half asleep when Kelley pulled off that move so her reaction had been a lot slower but still, she should have been able to prevent Kelley from straddling her and pinning her on the bed.

Hope looks at her with eyes wide open, she is wide awake right now. Hope tries to get up, but Kelley has her pinned down pretty hard. No way she was going to make it. “All right I’ll get up” Kelley looks at Hope with a raised eyebrow. “I promise I’ll get up. Kelley leans down and kisses Hope before letting go off Hope’s hands and making her way off the bed. Hope had to react quickly she knew once Kelley was off the bed she has no chance in catching her. Hope quickly sits up and swings her arms around Kelley, pulling her closer. She then turns around and this time it is Hope pinning Kelley on the bed. “Do you want to tell me why I need to wake up this early on my only day off?” Kelley shakes her head. Hope moves Kelley hands to she can hold them down with just one hand. Hope looks at her but Kelley once again shakes her head. Hope moves her hand and instead of tickling her, she lifts Kelley’s shirt a bit. This time it is Kelley’s eyes that grew big. Hope then continues to traces a random pattern of lines on Kelley’s skin, leaving a trail of goose bumps behind. _This is so not fair._  
  


“You’re sure you still don’t want to tell me” Kelley nodded. “Is that, yes I’m sure or yes I’ll tell you” Hope moves her hand a bit and Kelley has trouble saying “Yes I’m sure” Hope smirks and all Kelley can do is prepare her body for the ‘torture’. “Come on Hope” Kelley says when Hope stops for the fourth time just before she went over the edge “Tell me why you woke me up so early” _This was so not fair_ , her brain was mush, she couldn’t think straight. “I wanted to see the sunrise with you” Hope smirks, “really?” “You think I can come up with something in this state?” Hope smirks, knowing it is true. In this state Kelley’s brain only tells her to breathe. Hope was amazed Kelley even managed to say something.

 

Once Kelley got enough function of her brain back she says “You are so going to pay for this” Hope just smiles and lies down next to Kelley, who is still trying to catch her breath.


	17. Chapter 17

When Kelley comes back home from training she finds Hope lying in just shorts and a sports bra in one of the lounge chairs, reading a book. Kelley spots a bucket and smiles. She silently grabs the bucket and fills it with water from the pool. She tip toes to Hope, surprised Hope didn’t hear her yet. She then splashes the ‘cold’ water over Hope, making sure no water was splashed over the book. Hope jumps but had to steady herself, her legs were still a bit shaky. She than looks at Kelley who has a devilish grin on her face. Hope takes 2 steps and before Kelley can react Hope has picked her up. Her legs are shaking really hard so she hurries and takes another 2 steps before throwing Kelley in the pool. She did check Kelley didn’t have her phone or wallet in her pockets. By the time Kelley comes back up Hope is sitting on the ground with her legs in the pool. Kelley pulls Hope into the pool and makes sure to dunk her.

 

 

Instead of going in the morning Kelley decided to take Hope in the evening, she wasn’t too sure it was going to be as beautiful as in the morning. After all she had to take another trail.

Hope sits in the car and is has no idea where they are going. Eventually Kelley stops the car on the side of the road. She then steps out of the car and opens the trunk, takes out tow bags “What are we doing here?” In response Kelley just drops the bag on Hope’s lap. Hope opened the back and saw her back brace, her running shoes, a pair of shorts and a shirt. “What are we going to do?” “Running” Kelley answered while pulling off her shirt. Kelley checked Hope’s back brace and gave Hope the all clear. Kelley walked away, when she noticed Hope wasn’t following she turned around and waited for her. The first few yards of the trail they walked. Hope loved it, the trail really was beautiful and like Kelley said it is an easy one to run on. She did wonder how Kelley knew about this trail, even she didn’t know about it and she thought she knew most of the trails. After a while Kelley asked “Are you ready?” “Yes” Hope started jogging, Kelley made sure she was not going too fast. She could see the smile on Hope’s face. Although they weren’t running that fast, they were running. They came across a fallen tree and Kelley suggested they should take a break. Hope wanted to keep going but knew that in the end it would be better if they took a break from time to time.  By now Kelley knew the trail by heart, she knew there were enough places were there could rest. Hope had still a smile on her face. She finally was jogging again. She felt so close to being back. A few stops later Kelley suddenly said “Can you go faster?” Hope was surprised by this, the whole time Kelley had been slowing her down, making sure she was not running to fast, making sure she was not tiring her legs too much. Hope quickened her pace.

“Follow me” Kelley says and leaves the trail. Hope raises an eyebrow and follows Kelley, she just hopes they aren’t going to go much further, her legs are killing her and she still has to make it back.

Hope had to bend down a few times to not get hit in the face by a tree branch. A couple yards further Kelley stops walking and sits down on a large rock. Hope sits down next to Kelley, not really sure what they are doing here, until she looks up. The view is really amazing. “Wow” Kelley looks at Hope and smiles. “How do you know of this place?” “I found it a while ago with Erin” “And you only now show it to me?” “Yes, because I had to wait till you were able to run” Hope looks questioning at Kelley. “It was something I told myself, I don’t know it was a way to … myself to get you running” Hope presses a small kiss against Kelley’s temple and pulls her closer. The Sun already touches the ocean, it’s not going to take much longer before she totally has disappeared. They sit there long after the sun had disappeared.

 

They walk back, Hope’s legs are tired so she leans on Kelley and it’s too dark to really be able to see on what you are putting down your feet. To prevent injuries they thought it was safest to walk back. They arrived back at the car and Hope sat down on the hood of her car. Kelley looked surprised at her. Hope just motioned for her to sit next to her. Kelley climbs onto the hood and sits next to Hope leaning against the windshield. Not thinking this was something Hope would do. They both look at the stars in above them. Kelley spotted a few constellations: the small and the big dipper, Cassiopeia,… She was talking about them and was taken aback by Hope’s comment “you do know there is also a Squirrel constellation” “Really?” “yeah, it is an old Norwegian constellation” “Where is it” “well it exists basically of the same stars of Cassiopeia” Hope pointed them out. She then also points at Mars and Saturn but had to turn to the South West to show them. They than look at the stars in silence.

 

 “So what are you going to do?” Hope asked without looking away from the stars Kelley looked questioning at Hope “what do you mean?” “What are you going to do in off season? Are you going back to your parents?” Kelley was taking by surprise with this question, she hadn’t really thought about that. She just figured that now that she was living with Hope she would stay with Hope. _Maybe Hope only sees us as something temporarily._ Kelley panics a bit. “I was thinking of staying with you. If you are ok with you” Kelley asked uncertainly. Hope had felt Kelley freeze and kicked herself, she should have asked her question on another way. “Off course you can stay, you are my girlfriend. I was just thinking you wanted to go back to your parents or…” Hope trailed off, all she wanted was Kelley to stay with her but she didn’t know if Kelley was in for the long haul. “Yeah I want to visit them but like you said, I’m your girlfriend and I want to stay with you” Hope smiled and felt a bit more confident. They stayed out there for a bit longer till Kelley shivered. Kelley drove them back to their home. And on their way back she realized this was the first time they talked about their future. It was silent in the car, a comfortable silence. Kelley breaks the silence before they get back home and tells Hope she looking forward to show Hope the town she grew up in. Hope smiles, Kelley talks with this much passion about certain people and she just hopes that she talk the same way about her.

 

In bed they cuddle a bit before falling asleep. In that time Kelley does realize there is so much more they should talk about. But she still has plenty of time to ask those questions. The following fay Hope and Kelley have training. What they don’t realize is that they have 2 spectators. After the training Kelley goes back home and Hope goes to physiotherapy.

 

Kelley arrives once again early on training. She just finishes her last warming-up exercise when the others walk onto the field. Something is off with their shirts. Kelley stops the ball and looks at them while they make their way onto the pitch. She than starts laughing. Pinoe shows off her look. “Very original” Laura arrives a couple seconds later and cocks an eyebrow, for some reason all her players, except Kelley, are wearing their shirts inside out. She does smile and shakes her head a bit, little did they know she had a surprise for Kelley as well. While Kelley and Pinoe joke about god knows what she assembles the rest of the team around those two.

 

A few days later, the night before Kelley left for Portland.

Hope wakes up, in the middle of the night. She takes a moment to catch her breath. She then looks at Kelley and is glad Kelley is still sleeping. She than remembers the way why she was awake. She thought about it, it was weird she hadn’t had the dream in months. _Why now?_ Hope quickly checks her legs, although there is this tingling in them she can still move them. After a while the tingling goes away and Hope scoops a bit closer to Kelley, hoping she will fall asleep again.

 

A few hours later, At breakfast Kelley notices something is off with Hope. “What’s wrong babe?” Hope looks up and sees this worried look in Kelley’s eyes. “Are your legs troubling you?” “No, it’s just I had this dream I haven’t had in months.” Kelley puts down the fork she was using and gives Hope her full attention. “What dream?” “About my last game, I haven’t had in months. I don’t know why I dreamed about it” _Hope’s last game? The accident! That’s why she snuggled into me this morning._ Kelley quickly makes her way to Hope and sits down on Hope’s lap. “Babe, why didn’t you wake me?” “You looked so peaceful and it was just a dream” “Hey, remember when I told you about might nightmare and you told me I should have told you. This is me telling you, you should have woken you. I don’t know why you dreamed about it but I can tell you this. …” After hearing Kelley, Hope just pulled Kelley a bit closer and held her. She had no idea why she was so upset about a stupid dream. Kelley kissed Hope before making her way back to her chair. The rest of breakfast Kelley talked about the upcoming game. She then went upstairs to pack her bag. Hope got a phone call from the hospital in meantime. She then walked as quick as she could to Kelley asking if she could drop her off at the hospital before going to the stadium. “What’s wrong?” “Jess. I’m not really sure they told me something about an experimental surgery and that I should come as soon as possible to the hospital.” Kelley puts away her last stuff and swings her bag over her shoulder, in meantime Hope finished cleaning the dishes and they made their way out. Kelley drove them to the hospital not really knowing what to expect. Kelley drove onto the parking lot and stopped the car. “Text me when you know more” Hope leaned in to quickly kiss Kelley before making her way out but Kelley made sure to deepen it. “Don’t push yourself to far while I’m gone” Hope smiled “I won’t” she than turned away and entered the hospital.  


 

Kelley stayed there for a moment, to clear her mind before she drove to the stadium. She is glad the players are waiting inside, that way they did not see Kelley come out of Hope’s car. She grabs her bag and makes her way inside. She did not really look forward to the 5 hour bus drive. It was fun being with her friends but she didn’t really like sitting still for so long. She was also a bit worried, Hope still hadn’t texted her. Carm talked about Canadian camp coming up. She talked about the usual pranks that were going to be pulled. Carm also hoped to see Max again but figured the chance of erin bringing him into camp wasn’t big. Carm had noticed Kelley was a bit more quiet than normal so she figured she should just keep talking. After an hour or so Kelley’s phone buzzes and Carm notices Kelley smiles when she sees who send her the text. Carm looked away, to give Kelley some privacy. Normally she would have done the opposite but it looked serious. Kelley started talking to Carm before she hit send. “So are you looking forward to play against Sincy?” “Yeah, it is always nice to play against her. I just hope I can stop her attacks.” Kelley smiled, although she hadn’t been in to many camps with the senior team it felt so good to score against Ashlyn a couple days ago. Carm notices that after that text message Kelley is back her usual self.

 

Hope takes a cab back home, she was glad the driver wasn’t a women’s soccer fan and didn’t recognize her. The last thing she wants is her address all over the internet. She thanks the man and steps to her house. The house is quiet, not that Hope mind but she does misses her sometimes a bit too excited girlfriend. She invites a couple of friends. It had been a couple of weeks since they last saw each other. Hope enjoyed it, for a couple of hours her life wasn’t about her comeback or soccer. Kate helped clean up afterwards. She saw that is was getting hard for Hope to walk. And she also wanted to know a bit more about Hope and Kelley’s relationship.

The next day Hope met with Jess before going on a short run with Mac. He wanted her to run on a treadmill but she hates that so she convinced him in coming to the reign training fields, knowing the Reign wouldn’t be there. He shows up with a pick-up full of equipment. “I don’t know what you need to run but I only need my shoes” “We are not only here to run, I figured since you wanted to run here I could bring along some equipment and do your session here.” Hope smiled, finally she would be training on the pitch again.

 

Kelley enters the stadium for the first time and notices how big it is. She is a bit nervous, Pinoe notices and comes over. They have training in the stadium to get used to the pitch. Laura also wanted players like Kelley to get used to the ‘Huge’ stadium. She needed them focused on the game and not on the amount of supporters sitting in the stands.

 

The next day Hope once again met Mac at the training complex. Later that day Hope wanted to do some more working out. Ignoring Kelley’s warning. She took Leo out on a run. But it was too much, after her intensive work-out with Mac her legs just couldn’t support her anymore and she fell. It was sudden and she fell hard before she could place her hands to slow down the fall a bit. “Damnit” Leo waited for her to get up. She pushes herself up and remains seated for a while. Her hands are scraped and she is probably going to have some bruises. On her way back she falls two more times and once she get home she uses her crutches to get upstairs, once in bath she feels so worse, like she is never going to make it back, if she can’t even go for 2 small runs a day how is she ever supposed to play 90 minutes?

 

Hope takes the plane to Portland, she arrives in the morning. Tobin is waiting for her at the airport. “What happened to you?” Tobin asks once she sees Hope “I ignored Kelley” Tobin looks questioning at Hope, not really sure what she should make of that. She tried to see f Hope was serious, Kelley would never hit Hope. Hope sees the looks on Tobin’s face “I ignored her warning of not pushing myself too far. I went on a run after I had already done an intensive work out with Mac. And I guess my legs were just too tired so I fell” “Ouch” Without talking about that any further they made their way to Tobin’s car. “What do you want to do?” “I hoped I could hang out with you a bit. I had planned to go on a walk or so but my legs are still a bit tired, I think I will need all my energy to get to the stadium.” Tobin nodded, I need to get to the stadium in 2 hours but I can hang out with you before that. You can stay at my place afterwards.” “Thanks”

Tobin parked the car and the two made their way to Tobin’s apartment. “Nice plays” Hope says while looking around. “Yeah, it isn’t that big but it’s only for as long as the season.” “Are you going back to Paris afterwards?” “I don’t know yet. I want to but I’m not sure US Soccer will let me.” Hope let Tobin talk about Paris, she did notice Tobin mentioned a certain defender more than the others. She made a mental note to talk to her French friends about that. Not that she didn’t want to ask Tobin about that. But that defender might be part of her surprise.

 

The Reign arrive at the stadium. Kelley is already 100% percent focused, she wants to win this game. She went over all the tips Hope had given her. Once in the locker room she quickly put on her warming-up kit and cleats and made her way onto the pitch. The Thorns were warming up on the other side. She looked for a minute and Tobin waved at her. Kelley waved back and began her warming up exercises. Laura was also on the pitch, making sure one of her star players didn’t exhaust herself before the game even began. The other came onto the pitch a couple minutes later and they started doing their exercises. Laura supervised, giving comments from time to time. This was the last game of the season and she wanted to end with a win.

 

Warming- up is over and the team goes back inside to talk some last minute tactics. The players are all still wearing their arming-up shirts. After the briefing Laura sticks around. Kelley goes to her cubicle and looks at her jersey. She than looks at the jersey next to her, it is a bit different. She takes her shirt off the hanger and looks at it. And laughs. _Good one Laura._ Kelley looks at the inside, but she has no choice. Carm, who is waiting for Kelley to get dressed looks at her. Kelley puts on the jersey and Carm laughs, the others also look at Kelley and laugh. Kelley looks at Laura, who is trying her best to not laugh too hard.  

An official steps into the room, telling them it is time to stand in the tunnel. The team walks out. Waiting for the referee to signal they can walk on the pitch Kelley stands next to Tobin. “What did you do with your shirt?” “Nothing” Kelley says and her teammates try not to laugh “Why are you wearing your shirt inside out and is your number printed on the inside” Pinoe, who stands in front of Kelley can’t contain her laugh anymore. Kelley also laughs “Guess I wore my shirt a little bit too much inside out on training.” Both teams started walking onto the pitch before Tobin could react. Tobin and Pinoe were still laughing when the teams stepped onto the pitch. Hope, who was sitting in the stands, didn’t think that was abnormal. The camera zoomed in on the players during the line-up. Hope looked at the big screen, Kelley’s shirt seemed a bit different than the others, though she couldn’t really tell what was different.

The referee blows the whistle, the Reign’s last game starts. Hope sits on the tip of her chair. She so hoped the Reign would win. Not that the Thorns don’t deserve it but Kelley has just worked so hard and Hope knows that if she ends with a win today her mentality in the off-season will be so much different from when they end in a loss or tie. After all the thorns still have at least one game after this one.

Tobin waltzes through the Reign’s midfield and Hope is glad the reign has a good defense. But then there is Sinclair heading for goal. Luckily Carm is in defense and knows how her Canadian captain plays. In the 30th minute the score is still 0-0.

Kelley gets a cross from Pinoe and Hope sees the perfect opportunity. Kelley does as she practiced with Hope. The moment Kelley’s boot connected with the ball Hope knew the ball was going to go in. Angerer hit the ground and the ball hit the back of the net. The Reign celebrates and Kelley puts one finger in the air. Not only signaling her first goal of the game.

As predicted by Hope the Thorns scored only minutes after Kelley’s goal. The score at halftime as 1-1.


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My version of the inaugural NWSL season is a mix of the two seasons. The Houston Dash is already a team competing for the title but i used WNYF and PTFC as the two finalists (like in the first NWSL season).

At halftime there were some highlights of the first half shown. Hope noticed something was off with Kelley’s jersey. There was a close-up of Kelley. “Looks like something went wrong with the printing of O’Hara’s jersey” the commentator says. Kelley is wearing her jersey inside out but somehow her name and number are shown like all the rest.

“It looks like the kit man has printed O’Hara’s name, number and team logo on the inside of the jersey”

Hope laughs, knowing Kelley wore her shirt a few times inside out on training. Shortly after the teams walk back onto the pitch and the game continues. Both teams go for the win. It is actually quite impressing. Knowing the Reign hadn’t scored in their 2 previous matches against the Thorns. It seemed with the addition of Kelley to the team and Syd back healthy, the team had a chance to win against one of the title favorites.

Both teams had chances, but it wasn’t till the 85th minute that one of the two teams managed to score. The Reign were up with 1-2. The team was happy they really had a bad season, the last games were better and they wanted to end with a win. Kelley also managed to assist on the goal scored by Syd a couple minutes later. The game ended in a 1-3 win for the Reign. The thorns seem disappointed. They lost their last game of the regular season to a team that till a month ago was second last. Kelley walks around the field with a big smile on her face. The training with Hope really paid off. Kelley went to shake hands with her opponent. Alex was disappointed they lost but with the semi-finale just a couple days away the coach had decided to keep her on the bench, she still had some trouble with her ankle and coach wanted her 100% for the semis. “Why again did they print your number and name on the inside?” Tobin asks “Cause I wore my shirt a few times inside out on training and Laura thought it was great way to get me back.” Tobin laughs, she knew Kelley and had more than once witnessed Kelley wearing her shirt inside out on trainings or just when the two of them went for an early jog. But once you pointed it out she always turned them on the right side. “Why didn’t you just turn it back? On training I mean?” Kelley looked around “Because I had grabbed a shirt of Hope by accident so I had to wear it inside out if I didn’t want the others to find out.” Before Tobin could say anything else Pinoe jumped on Kelley.  


After the game Hope walks back towards Tobin’s place. She needs to grab a few things before making her way back to the airport. On her way to Tobin’s place she gets a text from the airliner telling her, her flight has been delayed. She grunts and decides to stay at Tobin’s place till it’s time to get to the airport.

On the way to the locker room Kelley still thinks about what Tobin said. From what she had heard it seemed like Hope was in town. But Kelley didn’t know Hope was going to come to watch the game. She was going to ask Hope later (tomorrow) when she got back home.

 

Most of the other players were already in the locker room when Kelley enters. “Great game Kelley, if we had known, we would have given you a shirt like that every game” Kelley sticks out her tong and goes to her cubicle. “No but really Kell, great game” “Thanks”

They were all super happy. They were already looking forward to next season. If they play like this every time they had a good chance of ending in the top half of the standings.

 

By the time they made it back to Seattle it was already past midnight. “Hey Kell can you give me a ride home?” Kelley quickly thought, does Pinoe knows in what kind of car Hope drives? Does she know Hope’s license plate? She hoped not. “Yeah sure” “What car do you drive? This one?” Pinoe pointed to an old Honda. “Nope” I answered and was curious which car Pinoe would pick next. Pinoe looked around, there weren’t that many cars but she never would have guessed the one I am driving. “Wow, What’s your pay? I can’t afford that with my salary” “It’s not my car. It’s the car of the people I’m staying with” “You still live with them?” “Yeah. I don’t need to pay rent and they are pretty cool so why not” Pinoe sat down and looked around. “Man if I had known this I would have asked for a ride to every training, way better than my ride” Kelley smiles, Pinoe was right, it was a pretty nice car. Much better than the Honda she used to drive at Stanford.

“Any plans in the off season?” Kelley asks “Yeah, I first take a couple of weeks off before the NT camps begin again. With CONCACAF in October, the friendly against Canada in November and the Brazil tournament in December I really can use a few days off.” Kelley hadn’t thought about all the NT activities but then again she didn’t expect to be called up for the CONCACAF tournament. “What about you?” “I’m going to visit some friends before we have to be back early September and then I haven’t planned much. I probably will have a bit more time off than you though.” “It would be a real loss if they didn’t call you up, I mean you really are a great forward.” “Thanks but compared to Abby Wambach, Syd or Alex Morgan I’m just really not good enough” “You will, you just need a bit more experience, but if you play like you did tonight, I’m sure they will call you up” “Thanks” Kelley said and refocused on the road.

“What if you want to have friends over?” Pinoe asks. “What?” “What if you want to invite someone back to where you sleep? I guess you can’t just take you boy or girlfriend ….” Kelley smiles but cursed inside, off course Pinoe would ask this. “Hypothetically speaking, If I would have a girlfriend than I would sleep at her house.” Pinoe, squinted her eyes, … “Hypothetically speaking, if you would have a girlfriend and I ask about her, would you tell me about her?” “Hypothetically speaking, What would you ask about her?” “Hypothetically speaking I would ask if she is hot.” “Then I would say yes she is. Hypothetically” Kelley smiles and is glad she reached Pinoe’s place. Kelley pulls over and although Pinoe wants to know more about this hypothetical girlfriend, she is also looking forward to curl up next to her real girlfriend and fall asleep. “Thanks for the ride.” “You’re welcome”  


Kelley arrives home, exhausted. She was ready to go to sleep. She drops her bag in the hall way, quickly makes her way upstairs, brushes her teeth, takes off her pants and shirt and crawls into bed. She snuggles into Hope and falls asleep seconds later, with a smile on her face. If she had been awake for a bit longer she would have noticed Hope was still awake. Hope had been home for a couple minutes, her flight back had been delayed so she made it back way later than planned.

 

Kelley was the first one to wake up, she found it a bit weird Hope was still sleeping but before she could think about that any further she fell back asleep. Around 2 pm, Kelley woke back up. She started tracing random patterns on Hope’s skin. Hope was lying on her abdomen so she was tracing the lines of Hope’s tattoo. She liked the tattoo on Hope’s chest more but that one was impossible to reach now. After a while Hope turned around and since she was only wearing her underwear and bra Kelley could trace the tattoo on Hope’s chest. She traced the lines of the words, words she, by now, knew by heart. She then spotted a bruise on Hope’s hipbone… She didn’t really pay attention to it, but then she spotted another bruise on Hope’s body. She looked around and saw the palms of Hope hands were scratched. Kelley wakes Hope up, ”What happened?” Hope blinks a couple times “What?” “Why are your hands scratched and are there bruises on your body?” Hope blinked a few times before she answers still half asleep “I fell, I went running after my work-out with Mac, I thought I would be able to do it. Guess not.” . “Hope, you promised you wouldn’t push yourself too hard.” “I know but I want to be out there in the field with you. And I thought I might get there faster if I trained some extra.” “I know but you won’t get there any faster if you keep pushing yourself too fast. It will probably take you longer if you keep injuring yourself.” “I know, I won’t do it again” Hope smiles and traces a random line from freckle to freckle.

“Were you at the game yesterday?” “Yeah, I took the plane early in the morning and hung out with Tobin before the game. Why?” “Just, I didn’t know you were going to watch, if I had known I would have made some time for you.” “That was my point, I didn’t tell you because I wanted you to spend as much time with the team as possible. Soon the season ends and then you won’t see them. I hope that I can continue to see you after the season ended.” “Thanks” Kelley says “Also thank you for the tips, it was really awesome to score twice on Angerer” Hope smiles “you did really good last night. What was that with your jersey though? It seemed like you were wearing it inside out.” Kelley quickly gets out of bed and searches for her bag. She comes back into their bedroom a couple minutes later, holding her jersey. “Laura thought it was funny to print my name and number on the inside of the shirt.”

Kelley’s phone rings. It’s Pinoe, letting her know the team was coming together for dinner at the stadium. They first play a friendly game and then have a barbecue, her hypothetically speaking girlfriend was invited as well. Kelley laughs but tells Pinoe she will come on her own. She takes Hope’s car and drives to the stadium. They play a friendly match between them, followed by a bbq. “I really thought you would have brought your girlfriend” Pinoe says loud enough for everyone to hear. “Nah, didn’t want you to look bad in this game.” Kelley says while walking to the grill to grab a burger. Carm is still laughing with Pinoe, when Kelley gets to the grill. The girls talk about the off-season and about next season. Kelley really liked them, some of them she didn’t know that well but she planned on changing that. Meanwhile, Hope does some small work out session in the pool.

She just finishes her phone call when Kelley shows back up. “How was the team barbecue?” “Great, I’m going to miss those girls,…” “You will see them again in a little over a week” “I know, but after that, I won’t see them for almost 6 months.” Although season was over for the Reign, Kelley wasn’t planning on stopping working out. Kelley thought this was also the best time to get Hope back into shape. The CONCACAF qualifying tournament is only 2 months away. Hope was probably not going to make it but Kelley was sure as hell going to do everything to get Hope back in top shape before the World cup. But first she was going to take a couple days off. Kelley is on a plane towards her friends. She had asked Hope to come along but Hope told her she didn’t want to hold her back and that she wanted to give Kelley the opportunity to catch up with her friends. While Kelley was with her friends Hope took the plane to Kansas city.

She called Michael a couple days ago and decided to see how he was doing for herself. “Dang Hope, look at you” Hope smiled, “You don’t look so bad yourself” They walked to his car. “Your walking really improved a lot” “Thanks, sometimes I think I’m not making any progress but if I think a couple months back than I realize how much I’ve already improved. I just wish it would all go a bit faster. But enough about that, what are our plans for today?” “First I let you drop off your bags at my place and then I was hoping you would join me to the rehab facility for marines. There are a few guys I want you to meet.” “Sounds great. I’d love to do that.” He quickly drops off Hope’s bags in his apartment and drives them to the rehab center.  


Kelley and Hope Skype later that evening. “How was your day?” “Great, it was nice to hang out with them again. How was your day?” “I went to the rehab center with Michael. I met with some guys that came back from the war. It wasn’t all pretty but they seemed so positive, encouraging each other and I know you cannot always have good days but they seemed all pretty good.” Kelley made Hope tell about them, after a while Hope finally managed to get Kelley talking about her day.

 

Hope and Michael also go to the semi-final between the Thorns and FCKC. Michael watched a few games with his friends on the internet and they really liked it. The game was a bit more physical than the men’s game and with that he meant that the women didn’t stay down after a tackle or fell down when a defender came too close but the fight for the ball and get quickly back up. She did send a text to Tobin before the game, letting her know she will be attending the game with a friend. Tobin is surprised, she didn’t expect Hope to fly to Kansas City for the game but asks if they can meet after the game or the next day. Hope sees her friend score the first of the three Thorn’s goals and after that she sees the thorns win. Michael is excited to meet with Tobin. They went to a small café and first talked about the game, Michael than asked a bit more about the Tobin, playing overseas and with the National Team. Eventually Tobin had to go back to the team hotel. She thanked Hope for coming and said goodbye.   


Hope wanted to go back home after the game, she wanted to get in some more training before she would take a couple days off with Kelley. But she also wanted to support Carli by showing up at the final so she decided to go to Rochester and train there. She called Mac telling him she would stay away for at least a week. He wasn’t too pleased with this. But gave Hope the name of someone he trusted near Rochester. Hope thanked him and promised she would work out.

 

 

GAME DAY Hope knows there will be a big media coverage so if she wants to be able to do her plan she will need to make sure to stay out of the spotlights. Kelley made it into Rochester yesterday, so she and Hope will go to the game together. Kelley and Hope sit between other fans and they think they did a pretty good job to not get noticed between the others. They enjoy the game, the ambiance and each other.

After the game the couple meets with Carli and Tobin. Not that they didn’t want to see Alex or Abby but Hope wanted to keep her progress a secret for just a bit longer. Carli was surprised when Hope sent her a text 2 days ago telling her she would be at the game. She was disappointed the Flash didn’t win the championship. But they were regular season champs so that was something at least. Tobin was relived, it was her goal in the first half that put the Thorns up but after all it was a team effort and she wasn’t one to rub the win in Carli.

Once back in Seattle. Kelley has a couple things to take care of with the Reign. Hope gets back into rehab with Mac. He is glad to see she did work out. The next week they stay in Seattle. Kelley has some trainings with the reign and has a lot of paperwork to fill out. Hope trains everyday with Mac and at the end of the week he gives her some exercises for the next week.

 

“You do know I can just ask one of the other passengers to where we are going.” “I know, but you won’t” Hope gives Kelley some headphones and plugs them in. She had downloaded a few episodes of one of Kelley’s favorite series. Not that she didn’t want to talk but then Kelley would hear the captain say where they were going. Off course Kelley would know where they are the moment they step off the plane but she wanted to keep it a surprise for just a bit longer.

Kelley was pleasant surprised when she walked out of the airplane. She was even more surprised when they went to a car rental and Hope let her drive to the address she had put into the GPS. “Are we staying in a hotel?” “You will see” “Are we staying somewhere near the beach?” “You’ll see” The whole ride Kelley asked questions about their destination and most of the times Hope answered with “You’ll see”

Kelley parks the car in front of a beach house and looks at Hope for a moment before stepping out of the car.

Kelley walks into the beach house. She walks all the way to the back and opens the back door. Hope follows, not really knowing what Kelley is doing. Kelley checks out their private beach and she then looks at the waves, perfect waves to surf. She just wanted to have her surfboard with her, but guess a rental will have to do it. She loves this place already. She chuckled in excitement and Hope smiled. Kelley turns around and jumps onto Hope. “Do you like it?” Hope asks already knowing the answer. “I LOVE it” Kelley answers excited

Hope carried Kelley back inside( Kelley was surprised she even could do that). Kelley didn’t know that it was hard for Hope to do so, she had to give everything she had to not fall. She dropped Kelley onto the couch and turned around to go to the car to grab their bags and take them upstairs but Kelley managed to swing her arms around Hope’s waist and pull her back onto the couch. They goofed around till they heard someone clear their throat. Kelley fell out of the couch from the shock. Hope tried to grab her but she was too late. Once Kelley recovered from the fall she looked at their visitor. She jumped up and yelled “TOOOOOOOOOBIN” Hope smiled, she knew it was the right decision to ask Tobin to come join them.

… Once Kelley let go she asks “what are you doing here?” Tobin replies something about surfing and couldn’t let her enjoy the waves all on her own. Kelley grins, as soon as Tobin mentioned surfing the look in her eyes changed, she walked outside and dragged Tobin with her, completely forgetting Hope. Hope chuckles and walks outside, she leans against the doorpost and watches Kelley pointing to the waves and telling something very excitingly to Tobin. The smile on Hope’s face grows bigger. She than turns around and grabs their bags. She walks upstairs and unloads their bags. She than goes to grab Tobin’s bag but just puts them in her room.

By the time Kelley and Tobin come back into the house Hope was already busy making a shopping list.

“Are you going to let this squirrel drive?” Kelley slaps Tobin on the arm. “Well, I don’t really have I choice, I’m not allowed to drive yet and I’m used to her driving anyway” Tobin looked questioning… “I’m allowed but I don’t know if I can trust my legs already enough to drive” Tobin nods, not asking any further. Hope and Tobin both sit in the back.

Hope pushes the shopping cart (so she can lean on it). Hope comes across a chocolate squirrel and remembers the first time they went grocery shopping…. She still smiles when she sees Tobin and Kelley. She does wonder how those two were able to live with each other (on their own) for a couple months. By the time they stood in line to pay their cart was more than full. Kelley and Tobin were already making plans to surf. Kelley did say they still needed to rent some boards. Hope enjoyed seeing her girlfriend and one of her best friends so happy. She paid for the groceries and they made their way back to the car.

 

When they get back Hope makes Kelley go into the garage. Kelley raises an eyebrow, not really sure why she would need to go into the garage but that quickly disappears when she sees her old board, the board Hope bought for her and Tobin’s board standing there. “Wait? How did they get here? You didn’t have them with you when we came here.” “I shipped them a few days earlier” Kelley was excited, she was not only going to be able to surf again she was also going to surf on her own board.

“Thanks” Kelley quickly kissed Hope before they walked back to the car to help Tobin get everything inside.

Hope saw Kelley looking at the waves every other second. So she takes the wine bottle out of Kelley’s hands and says “why don’t you two go surf, I can finish this on my own.” “You sure?” “yeah, go” Kelley quickly pecked Hope on the lips and ran upstairs. Tobin didn’t peck Hope on the lips but she did run upstairs to get her gear. Hope chuckles at the reaction of the two younger girls and puts away the bottle of wine. Hope steps outside and leans to the doorpost to see Kelley’s first reaction. After a while Hope’s phone buzzes. She goes back inside and places a note on the table, not that Tobin or Kelley will read it, by the time she gets back they probably are still in the water. Hope grabs her purse and walks to the car. She sits down in the passenger’s seat. Without starting the engine she pushes in the clutch and accelerator. Just to check the feeling. She is confident she can do this, the doctor told her a while back she was able to drive again but she knew how much Kelley enjoyed the fact that she was driving them. She starts the engine and drives away. She smiles. She always loved driving, one of the first things she is going to do once she is back at home she is going to take her car for a drive in the mountains.


	19. Chapter 19

Kelley and Tobin had been in the water for quite some time. They sat down on their board and rested for a moment “When did she tell you about thus trip?” “She asked me when she was in Portland for the game.” They both enjoyed the water and the sun. “Are you going back to PSG?” “I wanted to, but Jill told me I couldn’t she wanted to have me close with CONCACAf coming up and then the friendly against Canada and that tournament in Brazil.” Kelley lies down on her board. “What are your plans?” “I don’t really know, until 2 days ago I thought we were going to stay in Seattle so who knows what Hope has planned.” “Are you going back home for thanksgiving?” “I was thinking about it, I still need to ask Hope if she has plans or if it is all right for us to go to my parents.” When Tobin didn’t reply Kelley lifts and turns her head a bit so she can see Tobin. “What?” “Do you know about Hope and family?” Kelley knew a bit of the story. “I know some parts” “She should probably tell you the whole story but her family was totally different than yours and I you shouldn’t be angry at her if she tells you she rather doesn’t come with you to your parents’ thanksgiving.” Kelley sat upright on her board “Why?” “It’s just, she doesn’t know Thanksgiving the way you and I do” Kelley wanted to ask further but she noticed her friend wanted to drop this subject so Kelley made a mental not to think about this before she would ask Hope.

Tobin started surfing again and let Kelley alone with her thoughts for a minute. But not for too long because she still remembers the incident 3 years ago. Soon the two friends were both surfing again, leaving everything else behind. They rode one last wave back to shore. They walk the few last meters back to the beach. Suddenly Tobin drops her board and sprints away. Kelley looks at her in confusion. She than spots Hope, with someone else standing next to her. Hope makes her way to the water, leaving Tobin and the mystery woman alone.   


“Que fais-tu ici? Je pensais que tu étais à Paris.” “Surprise!” “Who’s that?” Kelley asks once Hope is close enough “Tobin’s girlfriend” “That I could have guessed, but how did you even know she has a girlfriend, who is she and how did she get here?” “So many questions babe” Hope says and quickly pecks Kelley on the lips. Kelley pouts but Hope just picks up Tobin’s board. She walks with Kelley back to the house. They places the boards against the wall. And both sit down in a chair. Hope had put some drinks and snacks outside. Kelley quickly takes some, she is starving. She really wants to know more about this mystery woman and waits for Hope to spill but before that happens Tobin and the woman make their way over. Kelley hasn’t seen her friend this happy in a long time.   


“Well, you obviously already know Hope” Tobin said, the girl nodded “and this is Kelley” Kelley figured Tobin must have told the woman stories about her. “Kelley, this is my girlfriend Claire” “So nice to meet, you I would say that I heard so many nice things about you but this one hasn’t even mentioned you once so ….” Kelley was speaking very fast and Hope noticed Claire didn’t understand what Kelley just said. “Kell, Claire plays for PSG and the French national team, you will have to slow a bit down or talk French.” _Off course, I should have known._ “Well I think I will stick to English, you probably won’t understand a word if I speak in French” The girl smiles “Nice to meet you, Claire”

 

Later that night, “How did you know?” “Well you did told me a lot about this awesome defender and don’t forget, I played in France so I still have a lot of connections there.” Hope had noticed earlier that just like most French Claire’s English wasn’t that good. She did understand a lot but she wasn’t really able to talk , maybe she was just a bit shy to talk English with native speakers. So from time to time they talked French, if Claire didn’t understood what they were saying in English. But then Kelley couldn’t understand it. Kelley felt … she was the only one that didn’t speak French, she did find it cute to hear Hope speak French. She could tell Hope’s accent was really terrible but at least she tried.

 

 

 

 

Claire was fighting her jet-lag. By now it would have been almost morning in France. Tobin and Claire called it a night and Hope and Kelley sat outside. “Do you mind I invited them too?” “No, I only wish you would have given me some kind of heads up so I could have at least downloaded a translate app on my phone.” Hope smiles, “You will manage just fine” Kelley makes her way to Hope and sits down on her lap “I did found it quite cute, you trying to speak French” Hope blushes a bit, she knows her French is not good but she just wanted to make Claire feel home. Kelley swings her arms around Hope’s neck “Thank you” Hope is lost “For what?” “For all this” Kelley let go of Hope’s neck and stretches her arms. “You deserved it. You worked so hard, not only with the Reign, but with me. You even stayed positive when I was grumpy and …” Kelley smiles, Hope called herself just grumpy .

Kelley had her arms around Hope’s neck once again and looked her in the eye. “good thing you are cute though, otherwise I don’t think I would have stuck around.” Kelley leans in and closes the gap between the two of them. Once things heated up Kelley started to regret they had to clean all this stuff before they could go to their room. As if Hope could read Kelley’s mind she broke the kiss and says “let’s put this stuff away and go to our room” Kelley never has cleaned that fast in her life. She practically sprints up the stairs. Only to have to wait for Hope. Kelley looks at Hope walking towards her. Kelley is just glad Tobin and Claire’s room is at the other side of the house.

 

The following morning Hope is up early, Kelley looks soooo cute so after giving Kelley a soft kiss, she silently makes her way out of the room, not wanting to wake Kelley. She made her way downstairs and was surprised to hear there was already someone else awake. Tobin usually slept even longer than Kelley. Hope walked into the kitchen and saw Claire preparing some breakfast. “Tu as bien dormi?” (Did you sleep well?) Claire turned around, surprised. “Didn’t mean to scare you” Hope said this one in English because she had no idea what ‘to scare’ is in French. “Ne t’en fais pas, je n’attendais pas des autres en bas si tôt.” (I didn’t expect anyone else downstairs so early) (was up, and decide to just come down and start preparing breakfast) Hope looked around and noticed some typical French breakfast. “Reminds me of my time in France” Claire smiles, she remembers Hope. It was her first year with PSG, although she was just rookie she did play the game against Lyon and remembered the PSG forwards struggling to get the ball into the goal.  


Kelley walked downstairs and found Hope and Claire talking (in French). It was kind of cute to hear Hope speak French, Kelley had heard enough French in her life to know Hope’s wasn’t great but her accent and pronunciation was already better than yesterday.

“Hi” Kelley says, still half asleep “Hi” Hope says and smiles when she feels Kelley’s arms around her waist and pressed a kiss between Hope’s shoulder blades. Claire decides to wake Tobin up. …

It was a beautiful day and Tobin and Kelley were determent to teach their girlfriends how to surf. Hope wasn’t really sure of that, after all her legs weren’t a 100 percent yet. But the look Kelley gave her, she never could say no to that. Hope knew that after the surfing session she was probably going to need her walking stick for the rest of the day but they hadn’t planned much so she didn’t mind. Hope and Kelley were already in the water by the time Claire and Tobin came outside. Hope was already able to just stand for like 2 seconds on the board before she fell into the water. Kelley showed her when and how to jump onto the board. Hope tried, over and over again after what felt like a thousand times she finally managed to get it right. It wasn’t as good as Tobin or Kelley but she manage to ride the wave for a couple seconds (at least that’s what it felt) before she lost her balance and fell into the water. ….

Hope sat down on her board next to Kelley. They watched Tobin and Claire. Hope was glad Claire wasn’t that much better than her. She felt the water passing by her legs, she was reminded to the fact that a couple months ago she than wasn’t even able to feel the water streaming alongside her legs and now she was learning to surf.

Kelley looks at Hope and sees she is deep in thought. Kelley places her hand on Hope’s thigh and waits for Hope to look at her. “What are you thinking about.” “Just how blessed I am” Kelley looks a bit confused “A couple months ago I couldn’t even feel water streaming alongside my legs and now I’m here with you, learning me to surf and I just … . I don’t know I feel blessed.” Kelley smiles and leans in to kiss Hope. They didn’t see the wave coming, Hope who was still not very skillful on her surfboard and fell of her board. Once Hope came back up she flipped her board and pulled herself up on it. She saw and heard Kelley laughing. She silently slipped of her board and held on to Kelley’s board. Kelley still preoccupied with laughing didn’t notice. Hope flips the board. Kelley stops laughing and tries to recover but she had no chance. Hope waits for Kelley to come back up before pulling herself back up onto her board.  


Tobin and Claire saw this little moment between her two friends. She smiles, she never would have thought Hope to have fallen for someone like Kelley. She never would have thought to see Hope like this, Kelley really opened her up.  


After a while Hope gave up, her legs were getting more and more tired and she wasn’t getting any better in it. Hope walks onto the beach and feels the sand between her feet, she just stands there for a moment and let her feet feel the sand under her feet. She doesn’t stay there too long, her legs feel shaky. Claire follows her, she had fun on the water but she preferred admiring Tobin on the water. The two of them sat on the beach and looked at their girlfriends, after a while Hope wants to go inside for a drink but she fears falling. She than notices her walking stick, just a few yards from her. She walked to it and picked it up, a small note was attached to it. _Because you always forget. And because I love you._

Hope comes back with a backpack, carrying two bottles of water and 4 glasses.  Hope was right, the rest of the day she had to use her walking stick to get around. This reminded Claire of what had happened and although she wanted to know more about it she wasn’t sure she could ask.

 

They all took a nap after dinner. Kelley and Tobin because they like sleeping, Hope because her legs were tired and Claire because she still wasn’t adapted to the American time. Hope and Kelley lie on the couch, Kelley snuggled into Hope and Tobin and Clair lie on the beach. Tobin is so happy she finally gets to hold her girlfriend again.

Later that day Tobin, Claire and Kelley go into town while Hope reads a book.

 

Hope lies in bed, legs exhausted. She starts to hate that every night her legs are so tired she barely can walk. She knows she is doing a lot and she is grateful she can walk again but she wants to just be able to run like she was able to run before. A moment later Hope puts those thoughts aside and holds Kelley a bit closer, she feels so blessed to have Kelley in her life and to have come this far already.  

 

A few days later, they are going to hike, Kelley found an old trail a thought it would be a good exercise for Hope. Kelley took the walking stick with her, just to be safe.  


After a while they came across a deserted football pitch. And Tobin wouldn’t be Tobin if she wouldn’t be carrying a ball with her. Tobin, Claire and Kelley quickly made their way to the pitch. It wasn’t till they were there that they saw Hope, still standing on the trail. They all remembered, Hope hadn’t played football ever since the accident. They also knew her legs weren’t a hundred percent.

“DROIT AU BUT” Claire yells, neither Tobin nor Kelley understood what Claire yelled but whatever she yelled made Hope walk onto the pitch. They played some not too competitive 2v2. Hope missed a shot and the ball rolled towards the goal, she turned around to retrieve it. Once she had the ball, she notices she is standing on the goal line. She looks at the ball in her hands, rolls it around a few times before throwing it back to the others.

… Tobin is the first one to take the shot. She places it not too far from Hope and made sure it wasn’t too hard. A while later Claire miss hits the ball a bit so it flies further away from Hope than intended and it flies towards the upper corner. Hope jumps, she notices the strength in her legs is not as it used to be. The jump is not far enough but she stretches as much as she can and manages to flick the ball over the cross bar. She than starts falling, it has been a long time since she practices falling after a safe but she still has it in her. She was a bit to slow so she fell harder than normally onto the ground. The three others held their breath. Claire felt bad for playing that ball, once the ball flied towards the goal, she hoped Hope would just let it go but she should have known better. Hope doesn’t just let a ball fly into the goal. Hope rolled over and stands up. Kelley quickly makes her way to Hope. “I’m fine, it just has been a while.” “I think it’s for the best if we stop and continue or hike” Hope wanted to continue but saw the fear in Kelley’s eyes. Tobin went to retrieve her ball and Claire stood there a bit awkward. Hope could see Claire really felt guilty. So while Kelley searched something in her bag she made her way to Claire.

They arrive back at the beach house. Tobin and Kelley go for a night surfing session while Hope preps dinner and Claire calls home. After that Claire asks Hope about her comeback.


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another short one for today. Next updates will be longer.

Claire has to go back to Paris, season would start soon and she still had a few things to take care of before the season started. Tobin went along, she wanted to spent some more time with her girlfriend and French friends before she had to be back for the CONCACAF qualifying tournament. They thanked Hope and Kelley for the vacation. Kelley and Hope brought them to the airport, they then went back to the old trail, Hope wanted to play soccer. Kelley still a bit skeptical figured that now it was just the two of them Hope wouldn’t pull some kind of ninja move to prevent the ball from going over the line.

Later that day, Hope lies in a lounge chair and just enjoys the silence for a moment. It is really calm, all you can hear is the sound of the waves, no traffic noises or other people. Just Hope and Kelley. Kelley walks out with plates, glasses and all things like that. Hope asks if she can help but Kelley tells her to just sit and that she will be out with the food in a couple minutes. Hope opens the bottle of wine and just finished when Kelley walks outside with two bowls full of food. “I don’t know what you made but it smells delicious” Hope says once she reaches the table. “Thanks”

Dinner is delicious and Hope wonders why Kelley hasn’t made it at home yet. “How come you haven’t made this before?” “Because this is a holiday meal” Hope looks at Kelley, not really sure what she meant by that. “It is a meal my mom only cooked when we were on holiday, so that’s why I didn’t made it at home” Hope nodded, “It is a shame though. It is really delicious” Kelley smiles but she knows that the reason this meal tastes this good is because of the holiday spirit.

Hope washes the dishes while Kelley calls her sister. Once that is finished Hope goes back outside, she sits in the lounge chair, reading her book, with a glass of wine within reach. Kelley goes for a night surfing session. Hope looks at Kelley from time to time and when she notices Kelley is coming back She makes her way to the waterline with a towel. She wraps the towel (and her arms) around Kelley and holds her close. “How was it?” “Great, you really should come out with me next time” “Tomorrow” Hope answers and she keeps Kelley close. After a while, Hope takes the surfboard and they walk back to the house. Hope sits back down and watches Kelley rinse off her surfboard.

Kelley takes the book out of Hope’s hands and closes it while sitting on Hope’s lap. They lie for a moment in silence, Hope wraps her arms around Kelley and holds Kelley’s hands in hers. “I love you” Hope says, almost whispers it. Kelley doesn’t verbally responds, she just turns around so she can kiss Hope. Hope stands up while picking up Kelley. She quickly makes her way inside. She know her legs won’t hold on much longer and Kelley doesn’t make it any easier. “Babe can you stop doing that for a second, I don’t want to drop us” Kelley reluctantly pulled back and waited till Hope sat down. The next moment Kelley lost one of the only two things she was wearing. She thought Hope was over dressed, Hope was still wearing all her cloths, but for the moment she wasn’t really capable of doing much eventually she managed to say “Babe, Shirt. Off”  


The following morning Hope is once again awake before Kelley. But Hope stays down, still half asleep she slowly starts to wake up. Hope realized they didn’t even make it upstairs, then last night came flashing back and a smile crept on Hope’s face. She softly traces patterns on Kelley’s skin, connecting her freckles and after a while she feels Kelley smile. Kelley places a soft kiss on Hope’s collarbone and slowly wakes up. Then as if she suddenly remembers something she pushes herself up and says way too excited for someone that has only been awake for a minute “we are going to surf today” Hope just laughs and closes her eyes, _Off course that would be her first thoughts._ Kelley drapes the blanket around her and walks upstairs, leaving Hope uncovered.

 

Hope isn’t that big of a morning person, she usually start functioning once she has had her coffee. But somehow Kelley convinced Hope to go surfing with her before breakfast, before she has had her coffee. Hope manages to ride a few waves, not for long. Her legs aren’t that strong yet, just standing up and balancing was already hard, but she Kelley was watching so Hope did as best as she could.  

 

CONCACAF qualifying tournament comes and goes. Kelley isn’t called up. Fans start asking more questions about Hope. Photos from Hope in a wheelchair, in Florida, have somehow reached the internet and they are starting to speculate Hope might never come back. They ask question about Hope at the players but none of them answers them. Kelley and Hope are back in Seattle. Kelley was a bit disappointed she wasn’t called up but when Hope told her they wear holding a training camp off their own she was a bit less disappointed. But she would soon regret that. Apparently Hope’s private camps are even tougher than the NT camps. Every night Kelley is beat and goes to sleep pretty early. One advantage is that she gets to sleep with Hope (literally sleep) every night. If they were in camp, there is no way they would be able to do that. Hope and Kelley send some good lucks tweet out to their teammates. They watch the games on tv, Kelley loves game day.

Because that are the days Hope slows a bit down. The day the USWNT has a game, Kelley gets to sleep till 0800. After two game days, Kelley finally knows how to slow down Hope. The following day she tells Hope they should go on a run like they used to do. Hope agrees, but knows that after that run she won’t be able to do many soccer exercises, her legs will be too exhausted. Kelley loves it, it had been a while since they had been on an early morning run and it was the first time Hope would run the entire time. The only thing that got a bit more difficult was carrying water. In the beginning Hope had a backpack attached to her hand bike. Then when Hope learned to run, Kelley carried the bag since Hope wasn’t really running. But now with the both of them running, Hope decided to carry the little backpack. On their run Kelley once again was reminded of Hope’s progress, she had seen Hope ‘run’ this trail with her hand bike, walking with crutches, walking with a walking stick, walking without stick, jogging for a yards at a time and now running.

They stopped halfway to drink some Gatorade and enjoy the view. “How does it feel?” “Great” Hope says with a big smile on her face. “It feels so good” Kelley also smiles “I’m so proud of you” Hope looks at Kelley “I couldn’t have done this without you. If it wasn’t for you I would still be in my wheelchair.” “I’m sure Carli or Abby would have told you to do something” “Eventually they would have but it wouldn’t be the same”  


They end up at the Starbucks. “I thought you guys moved out” “You know we wouldn’t do that to you” Hope says with a smile “You know for a paralyzed person you do walk kind of good” “thanks” “Let’s just say you kind of got me worried when those pictures of you in a wheelchair appeared on the news, for a moment I thought you lost the feeling in your legs again.” “Babe I told you we should have come by sooner” “I know but we were just so busy and I did came in the other day but Kate wasn’t working” Kate looks at the banter between the two of them and laughs.

 “So how was your run?” “Great I ran the whole thing” “The whole thing?” “Yes, the 10 miles without stopping, well we took a small drinking pause after 5 miles.” “Wow, when are you planning on making your come back?” “I don’t know yet, maybe the international tournament in Brazil, that way I have had a few trainings with the team before I get back out there. But I try to keep it low key, for the moment all the press and other countries think I’m in a wheelchair, I’d like to keep it that way. So I can get better before they want me to do these interviews and stuff like that” “I think you are already pretty strong, I don’t know if my legs would be able to run 10 miles.” Hope smiles. Other people start coming in so Hope and Kelley take their coffee and walk home.

Kelley’s plan worked. They did some exercises at home but that was all. Hope’s legs were almost too tired to carry her around so Kelley finally got her much needed midday nap.

Hope and Kelley watch the CONCACAF final and see their team win. They both would have wanted to be out there on the pitch, but at least they are together, it would have been harder if only one of them got the call up. Not that Hope would have minded if only Kelley was called up, after all she had already set a date for her comeback.

After qualifying Paul comes to Seattle. Hope had asked him to come to Seattle for a couple days. He is surprised by Hope’s level of fitness but knows she still has a long way ahead. They train, hard. Hope barely is able to move her legs after the training session but it is almost as if she can feel her legs becoming stronger. The days Paul was in Seattle, Kelley trained on her own, at the gym. She did pick up Hope from the training field, Hope was in no condition to safely drive a car. By the time the friendly against Canada comes around Hope’s legs are much stronger, but she isn’t called in, Kelley is. (With Alex out Kelley got the call up)

Kelley travels with Syd and Pinoe to Vancouver. Kelley found it a bit weird Hope didn’t come along. Kelley knew Hope received an unofficial invitation by Jill but somehow Hope declined it. Syd and Pinoe talk about what they did the past week, so Kelley tells them about her little holiday with Tobin. (She left Claire and Hope out of the story and made a mental note to talk to Tobin as soon as she arrived).  


GAME DAY

The team stands in the tunnel, Kelley is a bit nervous. This is her first cap, against a team like Canada. Carli stands behind her and puts her hand on Kelley’s shoulder. Kelley smiles a bit. Christie is getting a bit nervous, Ashlyn forgot one of her gloves and went back to get them but she still didn’t resurface. The referee signaled it was time to walk onto the pitch, Christie was glad this was just a friendly, so the referee wouldn’t card Ashlyn for not being in front of the line.

Christie started high fiving her teammates, she figured she would see Ashlyn at the end of the line. Then the crowd started to cheer and clap very loud. Tobin looks around and Christie set a step aside, she sees her keeper running onto the field. Only this keeper has dark hair and has the number one on her jersey.


	21. Chapter 21

A couple hours earlier.

“You sure you are up for it?” “Yes, I have been training a lot and I feel ready” Hope looks at Paul, “She should be all right” He adds. Jill once again looks at Hope. She had organized this game for Hope but didn’t want risk injuring Hope by putting her too early on the pitch.

“All right, you can play” Jill never had seen such a big smile on Hope’s face before. “Thank you” Hope goes back to her room to get some rest before kick-off. Jill just hopes she made the right decision, she had seen the keeper on training. After CONCACAF, Jill spent some day in Seattle and watched Hope and Paul train, she was pleased to see the progress Hope made. Hope looked good, she wasn’t as fast and her jumps aren’t that high as they used to be but she is getting there. Jill does believe Hope is good enough to get out there.  


A couple minutes before kick-off. Hope sits down, she tries to forget last night’s nightmare. She looks at the gloves in front of her, she wasn’t sure yet what she wanted to have printed on it. So Hope had different gloves with different words printed on them. Ashlyn comes into the room “Are you ready?” Hope takes a pair of gloves “Yeah” “Good, kick some ass!!”

Ashlyn is about to turn around when Hope stands up and says “Ashlyn” Ashlyn turns around “Thank you” Ashlyn smiles and says “It’s great to have you back”

Hope walks through the tunnel, she knows the teams are already walking onto the pitch. She can hear the crowd, she can feel the vibe … Hope stops a moment to take everything in. She closes her eyes and takes a few breathes before re-opening them. She starts jogging, it doesn’t take long before people notice her.

Once the crowd spots her, the team does too. The USWNT are still standing in shock, they did not expect this. The only one that isn’t shocked is Tobin, she is smiling like an idiot. The last thing they saw of Hope, were the pictures of her in a wheelchair. Nobody expected to see Hope jogging onto the pitch in a keeper’s jersey. Hope smiles but changes her heading, she no longer jogs towards her team, but to the Canadian bench. Hope makes her way to Christine. Sinclair hasn’t played a game ever since the accident, she blamed herself for paralyzing Hope, it kind off was but Hope doesn’t blame her for it, at least not anymore. Sincy swore she would never play a game again. She only was here today because John insisted. When she saw Hope jogging out of the tunnel she froze. She gets up and Hope jogs towards her. Then, both of them hate them but Hope hugs Sinclair. “Come on captain, they expect you on the pitch” It takes a moment for Christine to realize, she looks at John, who nods. She quickly takes of her trainers and checks her cleats before jogging with Hope to their teams. Erin walks forward, takes the captains band off her arm and puts it around Sincy’s arm. Hope apologizes to the officials (they knew what was going to happen). In meantime, a Canadian player has walked back to the bench. Hope stands between Christie and Syd. “Good to have you back” Christie says while standing back in line. “Good to be back” Hope says. All of the players are smiling, they just want to hug Hope but figure they have still plenty of time to do that after the line-up. Hope looks at Ashlyn for a moment and mouths a ‘thank you’. The announcer start with the Canadians, the crowd claps very hard for Sincy. They are glad they have their captain back. Although the Canadians would rather have not seen Hope in goal, it was good to have their captain back before the start of the World Cup.

Then the Americans, Christie gets a round of applause but once he has says “Number 1. Hope Solo” the crowd goes wild. Hope smiles and holds up her hand and turns around to greet the people behind her. It takes a while before he can continue the line-up. The rest of the players also get a round of applause, but none came close to the round of applause Hope received, not even the round Sinclair got.

The national anthems start, first the Canadian, then the American National anthem. Hope looks at the flag and with her hand over the crest on her shirt she sings along. She never thought she would be standing here again so soon, singing along with the national anthem. She takes everything in, her teammates singing along, Syd missing a few words, the crowd singing, or at least humming, along....

It’s time to shake hands with our opponents, I hold Christine’s hand for just a second longer. “Don’t go easy on me” Sincy nods, she understands what Hope means. Hope continues her way, she passes Erin , Carm,…

The starting XI picture, Hope stands in the middle of the backline, between Tobin and Carli and they all smile. Once the picture is taken Kelley glances at Hope’s she tries to see what is written op Hope’s gloves but Hope holds them behind her back. A few players briefly hug their keeper before getting rid of their jackets. After that, Hope gets her stuff, Ashlyn gives her a thumbs up. Hope smiles, and jogs to the goal. She puts the water bottles down and looks at the scene in front of her for a minute before jogging back to the top of the box, where Christie, Ali, Becky and Amy are waiting for her. Hope let Christie finish her little speech before she starts her own one. They all smile, not that they doubt Hope’s abilities but they will even work harder to keep the Canadians from coming near Hope. Ali gives Hope a pat on the back while they jog back.  


Hope walks back to her goal line. She looks to the players in front of her, her gaze stays a bit longer at Kelley before looking at Abby. They had an understanding nod before they each focused on their next task. Hope tightens her gloves and the referee looks around. She blows the whistle, the Canadians begin. Hope is 100% focused, she is a bit more nervous than normally but after the first couple of touches those nerves disappear.

Hope notices the team is even working harder to not let anything come near her. But they can’t prevent Sincy from taking a shot. It resembles the shot Claire took a couple weeks ago. This time Hope does jump far enough, instead of flicking the ball over the crossbar she holds it in her hands. She does come down pretty hard but stands up quick and sends the ball far to Carli. Startling the others by how fast she got that ball back into play.

Carli spots Kelley open on the right sight and waits a moment so that Kelley is in a better position before she passes the ball to Kelley. Kelley takes two touches and shoots the ball. They all can hear the ball hitting the back of the net. Kelley puts on one finger to celebrate and jumps on Cheney. Kelley’s first goal for the national team. She wants to run back to Hope but she knows that would raise too many questions. After all Hope and her don’t know each other that well. And it would take her too long to run to Hope. Kelley does lock eyes with Hope for a second and smiles.

A cross forward slips through the American defense a few minutes later. Hope sprints to the top of the box, hoping she will reach the ball before Tancredi does. She isn’t as fast as she used to be so she arrives a bit later than hoped. She dives to the ball, Tancredi, who was running top speed, has to jump over the keeper to not hit her, but she accidentally clips her in the face.

Hope stays down and Ali and Christie sprint towards her. Kelley wants to sprint to Hope but Tobin intercepts her. “I know you want to, but here on the pitch you can’t.” Kelley hates it but she knows Tobin was right. So Kelley focusses on what Abby is saying.

Tancredi gets back up, she walks a bit gingerly at first but after a few steps everything appears to be all right.

Hope stretches her legs a bit and sits up. She sees worried looks all around, she stands back up, she feels a bit shaken up and blinks her right eye a couple times, it hurts and she can’t see that much out of it. The referee stands beside her, just like all her defenders and some other people. “I’m fine” Hope says and rolls the ball around in her hands, ready to play again. The referee looks at Hope before looking at Christie, she nods. The referee jogs back towards the midfield and wants to restart the play since Hope seems to be fine, although her eye looks a bit swollen. Apparently her coach thinks otherwise because she sees Ashlyn walking up to the sideline while strapping on her gloves. Hope looks at Jill and tries to get her to let her stay on the pitch. The referee does restart the game and Jill takes Ashlyn back to the bench, promising Hope she would be able to play till half time. In the next couple of minutes the ball doesn’t come near the American box again, Hope only touches the ball a few times on a back pass from one of her defenders. She is on high alert, you never know when the Canadians might find an opening.

Hope really wants to play the other half but knows with her chances are small, she barely sees anything through her right eye. Once inside the locker room, the medics look at Hope injury, but Jill has already made up her mind. She is going to put Ashlyn in the game. Hope’s right eye is swollen and blue. It is a miracle she could even see through it at all. Kelley sits in the locker room and tries to pay attention to what Abby is saying but she really wants to make sure Hope is all right. Carli sits next to Kelley and tells her Hope is all right after that Kelley switches back into game mode and listens to what Abby has to say.

At halftime all the commentators talk about is Hope. They didn’t expect to see her back on the field, not after seeing those pictures of her in a wheelchair a couple weeks back. They show the footage from Hope’s last game … “The moment you saw Hope colliding with the post, what went through your mind Julie?” “I have had the opportunity to play a few years with Hope, so I knew the moment she stayed down something was seriously wrong. Hope doesn’t stay down.” “When they carried her off the pitch and word got out she couldn’t move her legs, I was …I thought it was the end of her career” “Yeah me too, I would like to get the opportunity to talk to her in person and talk about her way back” “I think we all do Julie”

….. “Do you think Jill will include her in the World Cup Roster?” “I don’t know how fit Hope is. Is she already fit enough to play numerous games in a short time of period? And what about Ashlyn Harris? She did a great job, are they just going to forget about her and make Hope the number one again?” …

“Do you think, Jill is going to put her on the pitch in the second half?” “I don’t think so, I don’t know if Hope is ready for that and she did take a pretty hard hit in the 41th minute. I was surprised Jill let her on, her eye looked pretty swollen. I would be surprised if she can see anything at all through that eye.”

“What do you think of Christine Sinclair’s play?” “It was obvious she didn’t play for a year, her touches were a bit off and sometimes it looked like she was already getting tired. You can keep working out but there is nothing that can prepare you for the intensity of game, certainly not for a game between Canada and the US.” “Do you think John will put her back on in the second half.” “I don’t think so, you could she her legs were getting tired and I don’t think Christine would want that herself. She believes that you have to earn a spot on the pitch, and her not training with the team doesn’t really ….” “I hope this wasn’t a one-time only comeback. The Canadian squad really is going to be able to use a player like her in the World Cup. Not only because of her play but also because of the person she is outside the game.”  


They were right, Ashlyn walks onto the pitch and defends the American goal in the second half. Hope sits on the bench with a bag of ice pressed to her eye. Sinclair also sits on the bench, not playing for a year … She did continue working out but that is not the same. Hope sits next to Cheney and watches Abby scoring the second goal and Ashlyn keeping every ball out of the goal.

 

The game ends in a 2-0 win for the USWNT. Hope walks back onto the pitch to shake hands with the Canadians. Tancredi apologizes for the hit and she and Sinclair talk for a little while.

The team then walks to the stands to sign some shirts and take some pictures. They yell her name but Hope stays seated for a while. “You should go out there you know” “I know, it’s just…” Hope trails off not really knowing how to say it. “I understand, just put a smile on your face and sign a couple shirts.”

Tobin hands Hope a sharpie and pats her gently on the shoulder before walking away. Hope makes her way to the screaming fans. It is nice to see they missed her but with the injury to the eye and her headache she already longs for the silence of her room.  Hope signs a couple shirts and is surprised by the words of encouragement they have for her.

 

They want her to do an interview but she dodges it and Abby takes it in her place. She knows she still has to go through the mixed zone but with the help of a friendly Canadian, who herself doesn’t like doing interviews and who knows her way around the mixed zone. Hope gets into the locker room without having to talk to reporters.

Once Hope walks into the lockerroom she is bombarded with a ton of questions. From time to time she glances at Kelley, until Carli jabs her in the ribs. Hope takes a shower and when she comes back most of the others have left already. She is preparing another bag of ice when she feels someone slipping their arms around her. Hope jumps, not used to someone touching her like this in the locker room or when she is away with the team. She turns around and sees Kelley. This is the first time Kelley sees Hope’s eye injury from close by and she gasps. She softly trails with her fingers around its edges. Hope nervously looks at the door, no one is going to walk in but she doesn’t want to risk it. “Babe, we cannot act like this in the locker room. See you back at the hotel?” Kelley looks a bit disappointed but after a quick kiss her smile reappears.

Hope sits next to Carli in the back off the bus. They still want to ask Hope a ton of questions but know she probably just wants to have some rest. So the team gives her some space.

Back at the hotel, Hope is put in a room with Carli. She takes a selfie and posts it on twitter along with a couple tweets, one of them being: _So happy to be back #FIRSTGAMEBACK #totallyworthit #ThanksK_

Hope gets a text messages a few minutes later. ‘You’re welcome even though I don’t think I’m the K in your tweet.’

Hope smiles ‘ Did you see the game? The K is also for you.’ ‘Off course I saw, the game. Just wished I could have been there. How’s the eye?’ “The eye is closed. I give you tickets for the next game close to Seattle’ Hope noticed how Kate ignored the K thing, she made a mental note to thank Kate once she got back home. She did not yet know how but she wanted something more than a simple ‘Thank you’  


Team dinner is nice, she sits with the other veterans. Every time she hears Kelley laughing she looks at her until she once again get a jab in the ribs from Carli “What’s your problem? A bruised eye is not enough? You want me to also have some bruised ribs?” Hope semi-whispers. “If you stop looking at Kelley like a lovesick idiot I don’t have to do that” Hope gives Carli her icy glare before continuing eating.

The rest of the dinner Hope doesn’t get any more stabs in her ribs.  


Kelley did catch Hope staring a few times at dinner but the look she got from Carli made her look away pretty quickly. She still can’t believe Hope would keep her comeback from her. Granted she was surprised to see Hope jogging onto the pitch in the keeper kit, so if that was Hope’s plan. It worked. She also wants to do a full check up on Hope, make sure she isn’t hurt anywhere else.

Jill asks Hope to come see her after dinner. Hope’s comeback is all over the news and social media. Hope’s tweets are quoted in several articles. For a while Hope was even trending on twitter.

Jill and Hope talk about what Hope sees is possible in the near future, they talk about the Brazilian tournament. At the end Jill asks her if she wants to do an interview about her come back. “If it is all right with you I prefer concentrating on getting fit for the World Cup instead of on my comeback story.” Jill nodded, she liked that idea. After all Jill wasn’t a fan of all that media stuff.   


Kelley asks Carli her key, Carli gives it to her but says she will be there in 15 minutes. Kelley nods, she knows Carli is doing here a huge favor. She runs upstairs, she even takes the stairs. But that was only because she just missed the elevator and it would take too long before it came back down. Kelley knocks on the door before using the key to enter, Hope hasn’t returned yet. So Kelley sits on the bed she things is Hope’s and waits, after a while her gaze falls on Hope’s kit. She walks to it and grabs the gloves.

 

Hope enters her room and is surprised to find Kelley sitting on her bed, watching at her gloves. “Hi” Kelley looks up surprised, she did not hear Hope coming into the room. A smile creeps onto Kelley’s face “Hi” “How did you get in here?” “Carli gave me her key, she did tell me she was going to come in 15minutes, make that 5 now” Hope drops her stuff and Kelley puts down the gloves before standing up. Hope briefly kisses her, she wanted to ask Kelley what she was doing here but instead Kelley slapped her on the arm. “Ouch!” Hope looks at Kelley “What was that for?” “For not telling me you were going to play” “I wanted to surprise you.” “Well you succeeded. I was surprised” “I wanted to make you proud, I wasn’t sure Jill would let me and I figured if Jill didn’t let me than you wouldn’t know and wouldn’t be disappointed in me.” “No more hiding things from me from now on and I’m proud of you no matter if Jill lets you play or not.” “No more hiding” Hope replies while rubbing over the spot where Kelley slapped her.

….

Kelley looks at Hope’s eye. She traces the outline of bruise with her finger, “Does it hurt?” “It was hurting but now my arm hurts more” “I didn’t slap you that hard” Kelley pouts and Hope smiles “Just kidding, it doesn’t hurt too much.” Hope wants to give Kelley a kiss but Kelley pretends she didn’t notice and turns around, leaving Hope surprised and a bit disappointed behind. Kelley takes the gloves and looks at Hope “Yeah. I wanted to put Kelley and O’Hara on. But I think that might have been a bit too obvious. Kelley shakes her head and smirks. Than the alarm on her phone goes off, “I have to go” “You can stay” “No I promised, Carli I would be gone after 15 minutes. And you are tired ….” Kelley hugs her keeper “I’m so proud of you, not only for playing today but for coming back for not giving up.” Hope smiles “I couldn’t have done it without you” “Yes you could have.” Hope wants to reply but Kelley’s second alarm goes off so Kelley turns around walks out of the room when Carli is about to knock “Thank you” She says while handing back the key.

Kelley is rooming with Amy, or A-Rod like the others call her. Amy is skyping with Adam and Ryan when Kelley walks into the room so she goes into the bathroom to brush her teeth and change into her pj’s. By the time she comes out of the bathroom Amy closes her laptop and Kelley let herself fall onto the bed. She has no energy to get underneath the covers. So she falls asleep on top of it. Amy chuckles at her roommate’s behavior and walks into the bathroom.  


Meanwhile in Hope’s and Carli’s room. Hope is still deep in thought. “Why are you looking like that?” “What?” “I would have expect you to be happy, Kelley just left.” “It’s just, I realized something. … “ Carli noticed the Hope’s hesitation “Are you all right?” “Yeah, I’m just tired and have a little headache ” Hope replies, not wanting to talk about it. “They are sure you didn’t suffer a concussion?” “Yes? It wasn’t that hard of a bang. It just has been a long time since someone banged in to me… I’ll be fine tomorrow” Carli lets it go.

 

Hope is the first one at breakfast, at least she thinks she is. When she turns her head she spots Christie. “How is your head?” It was nice not hearing ‘how are you legs?’ but she did have a pounding headache and she barely could see anything through her right eye. “Headache and I can’t really see much through my right eye but apart from that just fine” Christie smiles a bit, she is glad Hope is all right but she’d love to know more about Hope’s recovery. “We were surprised to see you walking in jersey onto the pitch, at CONCACAF we saw those pictures of you in a wheelchair and feared you might never get out of the wheelchair.” “Those pictures were taken in Florida, I had a little camp for children in a wheelchair.” This spikes Christie’s interest even more. _How did we not hear about this?_ “I didn’t think you were planning such an event” “At the beginning I got a lot of offers, I figured they wanted to have the not-paralyzed version of Hope Solo and I no longer was that one so I declined them all. But I met a girl in a wheelchair at one of the Reign’s games and she made me realize that those children don’t see a difference between the paralyzed and not paralyzed version of me they just wanted to have a chance to experience a camp organized by someone as me. The fact that I’m or was in a wheelchair only made them more excited to attend. Because they felt I could relate to them, I know the struggles to go through every day.” Hope ended up talking about Jess and the camp she held until the others started coming into the room.  


 

They have a small recovery session planned later that day before they all go home, to spend a little time off before they head to Brazil for the tournament. Hope’s legs are a bit sore but nothing too bad. She talks with Ali for the biggest part of the recovery session. Once at the airport, they see a lot of journalists are waiting for them.  They all want to have answers from Hope, but luckily the staff manages to keep them away.

Hope sits a row up from Syd, Pinoe and Kelley. And they aren’t that long in the air when Syd suddenly asks“ Why are you going back to Seattle, don’t your parents live in Georgia or somewhere over there?”  Kelley is taken by surprise. It did seem weird for her to stay in Seattle, the season was over and her family lives at the other side of the country and even her friends don’t even live in a 800 mile radius from Seattle It took Kelley too long to answer so Pinoe intervenes “Has this hypothetical girlfriend become a real one?” “What girlfriend?” Syd asks shocked “sssht, Not everyone on the plane has to know” Kelley whispers, she already feels people looking at them. A row up, Hope is trying not to laugh, this could only happen when you are one your way with Syd and Pinoe. Suddenly she felt someone patting her shoulder and looked back. “Did you know Kelley has a girlfriend?” “How is she supposed to know Syd, she barely saw Kelley 2 or 3 times.” Pinoe says “I did not know” Hope says and Kelley wonders how she can keep a straight face. “Tell me about her” It was quiet discomforting to be interrogated like this on a plane. Hope on the other hand got to know some interesting things. “Where did you meet?” Kelley gives in “Starbucks” “Did you spill your coffee on her?” “No actually I gave her one” “You gave her a coffee?” _Hope always wondered why Kelley had offered her a coffee that day._ “Yeah, I paid for her coffee. She looked so lost and  I guess I just…. “ Kelley looks at Hope as she finishes her sentence. Pinoe and Syd talk about it, for a second forgetting Kelley is sitting next to them. “Maybe she was just sunken in her thoughts” Hope says “No, she definitely was lost” Kelley says “Did you ask her out on a date after that?” “No” “No?” “No” “Why not?” Kelley grunts, normally she would not have minded to talk about this, but it was kind of weird to talk about it with others while her girlfriend was just a yard away and could hear everything. Hope actually enjoyed this, she really got to know what went through Kelley’s mind.

….

“When do we get to meet her?” “I don’t know, maybe one day” Pinoe and Syd kept asking questions, Kelley found it hard to ignore them and looks at Hope for help. “Why don’t you guys let it go.” “Don’t you want to know all the details?” “No, I don’t. I just need to know two things.” Suddenly the three were 100% focused on Hope “Do you love her?” Pinoe and Syd look at Kelley “I do” They look back at Hope “Does she treat you right?” Pinoe and Syd look back at Kelley and if this hadn’t been such a serious matter Hope might have laughed. “Yes she does” “That’s all I need to know” Hope says, sits back down and continues reading in her book. For the remaining minutes it is dead silent in the row behind Hope.

 

On their way to the luggage belt, Kelley realizes Pinoe would recognize the car. “Give me the keys” “What? Why?” “I once gave Pinoe a ride home after a game” Hope slips the keys into Kelley’s hand, “I don’t think I left anything in it” “ok” Pinoe and Syd asked if she could drop them off, not really thinking about it Kelley answered she could.

 

Hope grabs her bag and walks with the others outside “Can I give you a ride home or are you going to take a cab?” Pinoe and Syd look at Hope “She is coming with us. I want to know about all the things you did things you’ve done.” Hope shakes her head and hopes Syd and Pinoe don’t live that far away from the airport. Once in the car Hope starts talking about the … effectively changing the subject. Pinoe did indeed recognize the car, Kelley first dropped of Pinoe than Syd and eventually arrived home.  

 

Once home, Hope switches off her phone, she had been getting way too many calls from journalists for an interview. She than makes sure to unload their bags before looking for Kelley. She finds Kelley lying on the floor in the living room. “What are you doing?” “Just ..

Hope smirks “You can join me on the couch for a quick nap or you can stay down there?” Kelley quickly jumps up and almost tackles Hope onto the couch. Hope puts her alarm on and swings one arm around Kelley, who is already asleep. It still amazes Hope how fast her girlfriend can fall asleep. Hope notices how close Kelley is to her and remembers the first time they took a nap together. Kelley snuggled so close to Hope that Hope couldn’t sleep. She wasn’t a cuddler, the whole time she just wanted to push Kelley away. But at the same time she didn’t want to wake up Kelley. After the first naps together, Hope was tense and didn’t sleep a minute. It took her a couple more naps to get accustomed to having Kelley so close. And now she loves it, she loves having Kelley close.

Not much later, Hope drifts asleep. They were awoken by Hope’s alarm. “Do we really have to get up?” “If you want to catch the plane to your parents, then yes.” Kelley snuggles even closer for a moment, Hope didn’t know that was possible, before walking upstairs to pack her bags.

Hope and Kelley are on their way to Georgia to spend Thanksgiving with Kelley’s family. Kelley was texting with friends while waiting for the boarding to begin. Hope tries to remember all the things Kelley told her about the O’Hara’s. She decided to subtle bribe some more information out of Kelley on the flight. Kelley noticed Hope was a bit tense so she puts away her phone and lays her hand on Hope’s thigh. It was risky travelling together but Hope wasn’t sure she would go if she was traveling alone. It would probably be almost impossible to travel together unnoticed after the world cup. “They love you, you don’t need to stress.” “You don’t know that and I haven’t met your brother yet.” “Jerry? You don’t have to worry about him.” Hope didn’t really know if that was meant to ease her or not. To be honest, it made her a bit more nervous.

 

Hope is carrying their bags, Kelley wanted to carry hers but Hope knew she would end up dropping it as soon as she saw her sister. So Hope would end up carrying it anyways, she decided to carry them from the luggage belt instead of picking them up somewhere in the middle of the arrival hallway. She is right, Kelley takes off the moment she sees her sister.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait, next chapters will come more regularly. I'm going away for a week in a of couple days so I hope to get one or two more updates out before that.


	22. Chapter 22

Kelley and Hope had spent thanksgiving at the O’Hara’s and Hope really enjoyed it. She still needed to get used to the banter between the siblings. Now they are packing their bags for the tournament in Brazil.

They arrive in Brazil. Jill and some other staff members would come behind, they needed to be at the World Cup draw in Canada. Hope is rooming with Carli, the staff wanted to ease Hope back into the team. Kelley is rooming with Alex, which might have been weird, considering Kelley is here to replace Alex (who is injured).  
The first day they mainly hang around the pool and later, the rookies have some friendly soccer competition. After a while some veterans join too. Since Carli was making her way over Kelley hoped Hope would join them too but instead Hope packs her bag and walks inside. Kelley cocks an eyebrow but a pass comes her way so Kelley once again focuses on the game. Ashlyn did notice it so once the game is over she says “Don’t mind her she isn’t really a people person.”  
Kelley looks questioning at Ashlyn, she had no idea who Ashlyn was talking about.  
“Hope, she is here to play soccer. Don’t expect to become friends with her or to even get a normal conversation with her”  
Kelley almost replied ‘then you don’t know her that well …’ but she caught herself in time and just nodded. Ashlyn recognizes the look in Kelley’s eyes   
“DON’T!”  
Kelley just holds up her hands and walks to the others. Ashlyn looks at her and shakes her head. She just hopes Kelley doesn’t get hurt or gets on Hope’s bad side. Ashlyn doesn’t really know on which side she is herself but likes to think she is on her fellow’s keeper good side (especially after everything that happened this last year). She knows the little forward is outgoing and she doesn’t really know what personal space means. But since Kelley is a forward and Hope is a keeper they won’t cross paths too often.   
The first night, Hope finds herself wandering around the little park near their hotel. She is surprised to see Abby. But really she shouldn’t be. Although she would have liked to be alone right now, a talk with her old friend is also ok.  
Meantime Kelley is playing a game of Monopoly deal with Alex and Tobin.  
While she is waiting for her turn she looks around and notices all most all the team is in the same room, only a couple of people aren’t there, Hope is one of them. It the second time today that Hope is not participating in any off time group activities.   
The following day, the team has a fitness session in the gym.  
Hope is the first one to arrive. She walks into the room and comes across the bars. She walks to it and stands between the two bars. She hesitantly touches it.  
….  
FLASH BACK TO FIRST TIME WALKING.  
Hope sits in her wheelchair, in front of the two bars. Mac stands next to her, waiting for her to get up. But she remains seated. Hope looks at her legs, they are thin and her muscles have grown feeble so much she isn’t even sure they will hold her weight. She can move her feet a bit but it takes a lot of effort and concentration.  
“You can do this Hope and I will be by your side, every step of the line”  
Hope looks at the bars “Can you leave?”  
Mac looks at her but she doesn’t look at him. Hope didn’t want him to see her struggling to put one feet in front of the other, to see her fail…  
After thinking about it for a minute, he reluctantly walks out of the room. If it was anyone else than Hope he wouldn’t have done it. But he is confident Hope will walk the bars and will not injure herself too much. Her upper body is strong enough to hold her weight.  
Hope hears the door open and close again. A minute or so later she puts on the breaks so the wheelchair won’t roll away when she pushes herself up. She then holds the bars. They are cold.  
She then pulls herself out of the chair. It takes a lot of effort and after a few second just leaning on her hands she let fall herself back into the wheelchair. She takes a moment and pulls herself back up. She is now leaning on her hands, with her feet floating above the floor. She slowly lowers herself so her feet touch the tiles. She than looks to the end of the bars and questions how she is going to get there. She puts all her weight on her left hand and quickly puts her right one a bit more forward. She breathes in and out before dragging her right foot forward, it literally drags over the surface. She then moves her left hand and left foot. She is about halfway when she comes across a problem, she has dragged her left foot forward but her foot flips forward so she will have to flip it back before being able to put it down. She tries to, she tells herself to do so but her feet isn’t moving.   
Eventually she pushes herself a bit higher that her feet aren’t touching the ground anymore. Her foot flips back into normal position and she lowers herself back, this time her foot is placed right.  
By the time she makes it to the end of the bar, her arms are shaking and she can barely move her feet. She let herself fall into the wheelchair Mac put there for there for her.  
She is so proud. It is weird she has the same feeling she had after winning the Olympic, only this time she didn’t win the Olympics she ‘walked’ 2 yards. Hope smiled, she finally walked again. She can’t wait to show Kelley but before she does that she has to practice some more so it at least looks like walking.

Hope doesn’t know how long she sit there, but after a while she pulls herself back up and slowly makes her way back to her own wheelchair. If she hadn’t trained her upper body with Kelley, she sure as hell would not have been able to do this. At the end, her arms are shaking and she falls multiple times, her legs not able to support her weight and her arms too slow to catch her.   
…

Cheney walks into the room, totally unaware someone else is there too. She then spots Hope, it looks like she is in some kind of trance. She puts down her water bottle and walks to Hope, softly placing her hand on Hope’s biceps. Hope jumps and seems to snap out of wherever she was with her thoughts.  
“Are you all right?”  
Hope blinks a few times “Yeah, this just reminded me to something”. Hope walks to her bag after that and leaves Cheney wondering behind. Cheney looks at the bars and figures Hope must have been thinking about her rehab. Cheney has like, all the others, many questions about that. Sure Hope talked a bit about it but it remains very vague.   
The others walk into the gym and the training begins. Kelley notices Hope is really focused on training, she always is on training but today she looked a bit different than usually. She also notices Dawn doesn’t let her exercise too hard. Kelley sees and knows Hope hates it. Hope hates to be seen as a weaker one. Kelley subtly makes her way next to Hope and tries to calm her a bit and tell her she isn’t the weaker one here. But there is only so much you can do without the others noticing. Kelley is a bit surprised by Hope’s cold reaction, if they had been alone she would have said something but decided to not draw any attention to them and makes her way to Becky.   
The rest of the day flies by and Kelley has no time to think about Hope. They also don’t cross path, except for dinner and lunch. But they were seated at other tables and Kelley really had to catch up with a couple people.

Later that night, Hope is back at the gym. She wants to do some more exercises, some exercises that will tire but also strengthen her legs. Exercises Dawn had not allowed her to do.  
“Hope Amelia Solo what are you doing?”  
The moment Hope heard the British accent she knew she was in trouble.  
Hope stops and turns around.  
“Didn’t I tell you to take it easy. We don’t want to tire your legs too much. We need you back, healthy.”  
Hope wanted to reply she works harder at Home but decided against it. She just nods.  
Dawn takes her to Charlotte to check Hope out before sending her to her room.  
The following day, Hope once again keeps mainly to herself. Her training schedule is even lighter than usual. Dawn keeps an eye on her, making sure Hope doesn’t tire her legs too much. She knows Hope can take more than she lets her do right now, but she wanted to get Hope slowly to the top. They still had a lot of time, she didn’t want to rush Hope in and risk an injury.   
Kelley notices how different Hope is from the Hope she knows. In these two or three days, Kelley barely saw Hope and when she saw her Hope seemed distant, like Hope is avoiding everyone outside training. Kelley had heard this stories about the keeper but never believed them, certainly not after she got to know her. But now they appeared to be true. She was a bit bothered by this and made a mental note to talk to Hope about this. Tobin had noticed her friend looked deep in thought so she quickly intervened. A couple minutes later Kelley and her were playing a game of ping pong against Ali and Ashlyn and her friend appeared to have forgotten about her thoughts.   
Carli and Hope managed to escape from Dawn and made their way to the small park outside their hotel. Carli wanted to train her shooting and Hope wanted to train her dives, perfect opportunity to do so. Carli made sure to keep eye on Hope.  
They made their way back to the hotel for the World Cup Draw.  
Kelley had been on the lookout for Hope and intercepted her.  
Hope was surprised to be pulled on some kind of maintenance room.  
She was a bit surprised and confused until she noticed the person that took her here is Kelley.  
“What was that for?”  
In response she feels Kelley’s lips against hers.  
“I just wanted to see my girlfriend.”  
“I saw you earlier..”  
“Yeah, but that was Hope, I want my girlfriend.”  
Kelley kisses Hope once more before turning around and walking to the conference room. Leaving Hope confused behind. What did she mean with that?   
The draw was a surprise, as always. It didn’t seem impossible to end on top of their group but Hope knew she had to even work harder now. This time they don’t’ have the opportunity to ease into the World Cup, nu to start full throttle. The rest of the team is excited but also a bit nervous. But it will make their victory even sweeter. They did not only won, they won against the best. Not that the other teams aren’t the best, it is just that some teams are less strong than others.  
After that most people go back to their rooms.  
Kelley had noticed Hope is distant and cold but she doesn’t really confront Hope (except for the time in the maintenance room, but that was vague) because she keeps thinking why Jill might want to see her. Kelley had gotten a note that Jill wants to see her once she arrives (that would be a little after midnight). Kelley was tired and she didn’t know what could be so important that it couldn’t wait till the next morning.

It’s already late and many players are already sleeping or lying in bed reading a book, skyping home.   
Tobin is skyping with Claire when Kelley walks back into their room.  
Once Tobin spots Kelley she quickly looks back at her screen “I’m going to call you back, all right?”  
Claire had seen the change in Tobin so she nodded and told her she would call tomorrow.  
Tobin puts away her laptop, Kelley looks in shock and is still standing near the door.  
“What did she say?”  
“She wants me as a left back.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope there are not too many mistakes in the story. I kind of had to rush it. Next update will not be up before 2/2. I'm going to ski for a week and no internet available. Sorry


	23. Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for the long wait. My computer crashed so it took me a bit longer to get this update out. Next update will be posted before the end of the week. Hope you enjoy it! Let me know what you think of the update. Ideas on the storyline are always welcome.

The next morning Hope surprises the few that are still eating breakfast by showing up late. Normally Hope is the first one at breakfast and the first one to leave. One look from Hope made most of them look back at their plates. Hope chuckles, she still has this effect on the rookies. Hope walks towards the table where Kelley is seated. “O’HARA” Kelley looks up, confused, so do the others. “Come to my room at zero nine hundred.” Hope looks at Kelley for a moment before walking out of the room, without waiting for an answer. If Kelley hadn’t been so shocked she would have replied something instead she just sat there, taken by surprise. _What the hell was that?_ She had never heard Hope talk like this.

Ashlyn shots Kelley a look after a few seconds. “I didn’t do anything” Kelley replies while putting up her hands, pleading her innocence. Kelley looks at her watch 0853, Hope didn’t leave her much time. She quickly finishes her breakfast, ignoring the looks she gets. Kelley makes her way to Hope’s and Carli’s room. She still has no idea what this is for, but she is fuming. First Hope is cold and ignoring towards their teammates then she doesn’t participate in off-time activities and third, she pulled that stunt a few minutes ago. Kelley knocks on the door. Hope ones the door, looks quickly in the hallway before saying “Hi babe” Kelley ignores it and brushes passed Hope. Hope frowns her eyebrows, not really sure why Kelley acts this way. Hope closes the door and turns around, about to ask Kelley what that was all about when Kelley starts rambling.

Hope has to concentrate really hard to understand everything Kelley is saying. She is talking very rapidly . Hope is shocked. She never heard Kelley like this. Sure they have had some minor discussions but never like this. And second, she had no idea. Granted she knows she is not the most social person on the team. But she didn’t know it bothered Kelley so much. And she only called her O’Hara because everyone expects her to be this mean goalkeeper that doesn’t really socializes with her teammates. So it would have seen suspicious if Hope had called the rookie she doesn’t really know ‘Kelley’. She just really wanted to talk to Kelley in private after what Jill told her this morning. Once Kelley finishes her rand she notices Hope’s shocked expression. Kelley waits for Hope to say something. When Hope doesn’t say something, Kelley starts pacing.

Hope searches for her words, how is she going to explain something she doesn’t really know why she does it. She has been doing it since forever. Not that she didn’t want to open up to them it was just easier this way. This way Hope could prevent things from getting complicated. Hope grabs Kelley’s wrist hoping she would stop walking around. Kelley stops, turns around and looks at Hope. “I’m sorry.” Kelley looks at Hope waiting for the rest of the story.

Hope first explains why she acts this way around the team she then promises to change, she promises she will open up to the others and participate in off-time activities. But she tells Kelley she might not notice immediately. Although Kelley would like Hope to just act like she does in Seattle she does understand it might take Hope a while to trust herself to open up to the others. Hope than just holds Kelley for a while.

“Why didn’t you say something earlier?” “I guess I was too busy wondering what Jill wanted from me.” Kelley silently says and remembers she still hasn’t told Hope of her position switch.

“What? Why didn’t you tell me? I would have been there for you…” “I don’t know” Kelley sounds deflated. She is still thinking how to tell her star keeper of a girlfriend that Jill wants her as a defender. It is also clear that this will be the end of her National team career. This all will be over after the tournament. Her NT career will be over before it even started.

Hope notices Kelley’s thinking. So she decides to tell Kelley why she really called her over. Hope takes a step back so she can looks Kelley in the eye. But Kelley is looking down. “Babe” Hope says and Kelley looks at her after a few seconds. “No matter where Jill wants you on the pitch. We can work this out, as long as she doesn’t want you as a keeper. With some extra training you will be a great defender.” “You know?” Kelley asks surprised. “Jill told me this morning.” Kelley looks like she is about to cry.

Hope cups Kelley’s face with one hand. “Hey if there is anyone that can make the switch, it is you. Abby would probably break her leg every game she has to play as a defender, tackles aren’t her forte. Syd the defender would probably beat Carli’s red card record in just as many games. ….” Kelley laughs and Hope smiles, she succeeded, she got Kelley laughing again. Hope got serious again. “You can do this. You are a smart and an amazing player. If you keep an eye on Ali’s play and listen to what I tell you to do you will be the best right back we have.” It was silent for a moment, Kelley took in all Hope had said. She was still wondering one thing. “Do you believe in me?” Hope knows a simple ‘off course’ is not going to be enough. “Not only does the girlfriend version of me believes in you, the goalkeeper version of me does too. You are an amazing player and an even more amazing person. You can do this, I believe in you.” Hope holds Kelley and after a few seconds she adds “You are also an amazing girlfriend” Kelley blushes a bit. Hope just kisses her and pulls her in another hug. They had to get moving if they didn’t want to be late for training.

At training most players are surprised to see Kelley with the defenders, but they don’t mention it. In today’s training the positions will train on its own. Meaning all the defenders are training together without the other players. The forwards are training on another part of the pitch without interfering the others, same counts for the midfielders and keepers. The first exercises go well, they are just general soccer exercises. But once Kelley and the other defenders had to do some defending exercises, Kelley fails miserably. The coaches and defenders easily get passed her. One time she gets so frustrated and goes in for a hard tackle. The assistant trainer goes down and stays down for a moment. That certainly got the attention of the forwards that were also on the pitch. The midfielders were off running somewhere, the keepers were somewhere inside doing whatever it is that they do. Luckily he’s all right but he and the others of the staff give Kelley a stern look. _Great, my first training as a defender and I already have pissed off all my trainers._

 

Kelley is silent on their way back to the hotel. Which surprises the others, in the short period of time they have known the ‘now defender’ they have never seen her this silent. The keepers arrive back at the hotel. Abby walks to Hope and holds her back. Once the others are inside Hope looks questioning at Abby. _Off course Alex would have told her_ Hope thinks after Abby asks her about this morning.“Back off Abby. You have no idea what you are talking about.” This time it is Abby who looks surprised and confused. Normally Hope would have walked away but since she promised Kelley she decided to explain it to Abby. “Look, I get that you are protective of Kelley. But you don’t know the whole story and I can assure you I just wanted to talk to Kelley. Nothing else.” Abby looks at her friend, still not sure if she should believe the story. “Just…” Abby didn’t really know what to say, that was a first for her, “She is young and sometimes a bit too energetic but she is damn good so don’t scare her away.” It took Hope a second to realize Abby is talking about Kelley. “I’m not going to scare her away, I just wanted to help.” With that Hope does walk away. Abby is surprised by Hope’s statement and is curious what Hope means with it. Hope takes the stairs up and comes across Kelley who is going back down.

Later that evening Jill is about to go to sleep, she looks outside and notices the field lights are on. Figuring it is the local team she grabs her laptop and sits down on bed. By the time she finishes Skyping with her family the lights are still on. But Jill is too tired to think about it.

Meanwhile on the pitch, Hope and Kelley finish warming up exercises. Kelley had been trying to get passed Hope with the ball. Hope suggested to switch. Kelley smirks _This is going to be easy_ “What?” “Nothing it’s just, are you sure you are a keeper and I think I got pretty big chance to stop you.” “You forget I used to be a forward” “Yeah like a century ago” “This joke is getting kind of old. Don’t you think?” “So do you.” Kelley mutters. Once Kelley realizes she said it out loud she takes off. Hope chases after Kelley, but knowing Kelley is the beep test champions she doesn’t estimate her chances very high. But she is lucky, since Kelley is still laughing, she runs rather slow. Slow enough for Hope to be able to catch her. Hope scoops her arms around Kelley and picks her up. “You still think I’m getting old?” “yes” Kelley managed to say after a few tries. Hope spins around. “What about now? I’m I still old?” “No” Kelley quickly says and is glad Hope finally puts her down. To be honest Hope was glad Kelley finally gave in, she wasn’t sure how much longer she could have hold on.

They walk back to the ball and continue their exercise. Once Hope was getting closer Kelley realized she made a big mistake, by calling out Hope, Hope is going to try even harder to get passed her. A lot of tries later Hope still got easily passed Kelley. Kelley grunts, she is never going to be a defender. She can’t even stop a goalkeeper from getting passed her, how is she ever going to be able to stop a forward?

Hope must have sensed something because she leaves the ball behind and walks to Kelley. “You are privileged you know” Kelley looks up, confused. “You think as a forward. Don’t try to forget that but use it in your advantage. You know how a forward that is coming towards you and what she is going to do, use this to anticipate your moves and block their way.” Kelley understands what Hope is trying to say she just don’t know how to do it.

A while later Kelley lies down on the grass, trying to catch her breath. Hope puts away the equipment and grabs two Gatorades and makes her way to Kelley. Hope sits down next to Kelley. Hope pushes a few strands of hair behind Kelley’s ear and looks her in the eye. “You will get there.” They make their way back to the hotel, Hope does gives Kelley a goodnight kiss before they part ways but that is all Kelley get’s.

The following day, Kelley is still exhausted from last night training. But she is a bit more her usual self. She pays attention to what Ali does and it also helps it are just the defenders on the pitch. Kelley tries to do like Hope told her. But she doesn’t really get the details right. Her mind is still figuring ways out to avoid the playing coming toward her and as a defender that is not a good way of thinking.

Game day. Neither Hope or Kelley gets the start but that was expected There are a few journalists hoping to see Hope play or hoping to get an interview. But they are all out of luck, Hope doesn’t play and she also doesn’t give an interview. Ever since the Canada game Hope and her manager have been receiving a lot of calls and mails from journalists asking for an interview. Some even wrote a few articles on her, on her way back to the team, but none came close to the truth. But Hope refused to talk about it, up until now she declined every offer.

The team is a bit down after the tie against China. Kelley is disappointed she didn’t get any minutes. But what did she expect, she almost injured one of her trainers and sucks in defending.

The next day, most players that played yesterday take it easy not Carli and Ashlyn. They are on the pitch training with Kelley, Hope and Tobin. Later that day they have the first training with the entire squad together. It is just a little scrimmage. When they call the teams Ashlyn really hopes Kelley is on her team, with recent events between Hope and Kelley. When Kelley is called into Hope’s team Ashlyn is worried she then looks at Kelley and is surprised to receive a wink but then again, you never know with Kelley. She just hopes the little defender won’t upset the keeper too much.

The two teams prepare for the scrimmage, although it is just a little scrimmage neither team wants to lose. Hope’s team is ready, she has a small talk with her defenders (Kelley, Becky, Whitney and Ali) before walking to her goal. Tony blows the whistle and the game begins.

Ashlyn (and the rest of the team) cringes the first time she hears Hope calling out on Kelley, screaming some orders. It starlet the attacker a bit and Kelley almost managed to get her body between the forward and the ball. This surprised the forward even more and enabled Broon, who was close by, to scoop away the ball and send it back to the midfield.

The rest of the game Hope keeps barking out orders for Kelley, sometimes she makes it in time, other times she is too late and Hope had to pull off some amazing saves to prevent the ball from flying in the goal. The game ends with a 1-0 win for Hope’s team. As soon as the final whistle is blown the competiveness between the two teams disappears and they do some cooling down exercises together.

Later that day some players talk to each other about Hope’s behavior towards Kelley. Although Kelley doesn’t seem bothered by it. They still think it is kind of pejorative towards Kelley. Christie decides to check in on her keeper, not to reprimand her but just have a normal conversation with her about the new players. And maybe the conversation will lead them to the Keeper’s attitude towards the new defender.

Jill is surprised of Hope’s antics but it seems to work so for the time being, she won’t approach Hope about it. It seems like with Hope behind her Kelley is a pretty good defender. As she had seen it, Hope just guided Kelley.

 

Later that day, Kelley and Hope are sitting down at the pitch. Kelley was glad they have the day off tomorrow, with this afternoon’s scrimmage where she had run more than anyone else, to try to make up for her mistakes and this training with Hope, she is exhausted. “Do you want me to stop guiding you on the pitch?” Kelley sits up “No, I need it. Without it I would be running around without doing some actual defending.” Hope nodded slowly, it is just. She had picked up some things today and the last thing she wanted to be is to be unrespectful towards Kelley and make her feel bad. “Hey, it doesn’t matter what the others say. I need it, it doesn’t make me feel any worse. It actually makes me feel better because it reminds me that someone cares.”

The next day someone, I think it is JJ, suggest going on the boat tour. She, Kelley and Crystal go around asking who wants to join them. Tobin, Ashlyn and Ali join them. They then go to the veterans. “Who wants to join us on the boat tour?” Christie is busy with some treatment on her back so she declines the offer. Without looking up from her phone Carli says “Nope, I’m staying in today.” The group than looks at Hope, although they know she will probably also say no. Hope was about to say no, she normally doesn’t go on trips like that. But when she looks at Kelley she is reminded on what she promised. She closes her book and says “Yeah, sure …” Carli almost drops her phone. In all the years she has known Hope, Hope barely went on trips like this and if Hope went it was only because she forced her to. And she certainly never went on one without Carli. “I just have to drop some things off in my room” The others were also surprised, but Ali was the quickest one to recover. “Yeah me too, we meet in the lobby in 10?” “ok”

Carli quickly got out of the couch and follows Hope to their room. Once she is sure no one is around she silently says “She has you so wrapped around her finger.” Hope looks at Carli before replying “I’m just trying to get to know the rookies, JJ, Chrystal…” “I’m not saying it is a bad thing. It’s just surprising, that’s all”

 

Meanwhile Kelley is super excited, not that she needs Hope near her all the time. She just wants her teammates to get to know the Hope she knows, the real Hope not the tensed and closed version of her. And she hopes that they might get to see a little part of the real Hope on this trip since there is only a small group of them. On their way to the dock Hope walks with Tobin and Ali while Kelley is off with the others.

They have the boat all for themselves, The captain didn’t want to leave with just 7 people but somehow Kelley convinced him otherwise. For the next 10 minutes we all needed to hear her talk about the O’Hara charm. Then with some brilliant subject changing skills Tobin managed to get Kelley talking about some ridiculous story. After that, they all just started talking about a bunch of stuff.

 

On their way back Ali suddenly realizes it has become quiet. Kelley, Tobin and JJ are watching the scenery while Ashlyn and Crystal are doing some ridiculous stuff and Hope is sitting a bit more to the back, it looks like she is thinking about something. Ali knows she still owes the keeper an apologize and since the others are busy she figures this is the perfect time to do so.

Ali sits down next to Hope who snaps out of wherever she was. “I’m sorry” Hope looks at Ali in confusion. “I’m sorry for not checking up on you after the accident. It just…” Ali searches for words to describe why she didn’t do it “I didn’t really know what to do.” Ali felt bad, after that game the whole team was in shock. To see Hope lying on the ground, unable to move her legs, that is something she never wants to witness again. Hope smiles a bit and gently places a hand on Ali’s shoulder so she could look back at Hope. “It’s all right. It’s not that I did much to keep in touch and I don’t know if wouldn’t have shut you out like I did with Carli.”

Hope pauses for a moment and looks at Kelley who looks worried, she tries to convey that she is all right without Ali noticing their little interaction. Hope looks back at Ali who expects her to explain herself. _Why did you have to say that a simple it’s ok would have been enough. But no you had to bring that up. ….._

Ali senses Hope tenses a bit more up and decides to let it go. “How does it feel to be back?” Hope is a bit taken by surprise with this question, she was still thinking about how to explain why she shut out Carli (in the beginning). It is the first time someone, apart from Kelley, asks her. The others all seem to avoid her comeback and accident all together. Not that she minds but it is nice to know someone cares.

“Strange, but I’m glad to be back. You know how it feels.” Ali cringes a bit when she thinks back about her ACL injury. “I do, but I figured it isn’t the entirely the same. I wasn’t as bad injured, I wasn’t paralyzed, so I guess I had it easier.” _Although at the time I thought that I had the worst injury possibly. I was sure my career was over._ Ali thought but decided to keep for herself. At the mentioning of the paralysis Hope unconsciously moves her legs a bit, just to be sure.

“Yeah,…” she trails off and looks at her legs “It wasn’t easy. I almost gave up.” Hope once again trails off. Ali is about to ask why she didn’t give up when Hope says “ But enough about me. How is Washington?” Ali was still a bit shocked about what Hope just told her but managed to push those thoughts aside and focus on the new topic. “Washington is great. It is still a bit searching from time to time but I think next season will be ours. ….” Hope smiles at Ali’s enthusiasm. “Are you joining the Reign this season?” “That depends if US Soccer is going to allocate me or not.”

After a while, the two veterans make their way back to the others. Hope knows that Ali will keep their conversation between the two of them. But she also knows Ali probably wants some more answers before the end of the tournament.

The boat arrives back in port and the girls thank the captain before they disembark. On their way back to the hotel they come across an ice cream salon. “Can I have one?” Kelley asks while looking at the others. “Yeah can we have one?” Ashlyn asks while looking at Ali. Ali smirks at her friends antics and says “Sure, if you don’t mind to run an extra six laps at practice.” “That is only if Dawn finds out. Who says Dawn will find out? I’m not going to tell her.” Ashlyn replies “I always find out Harris. You should know that by now.”

The others are no longer able to hide their laugh. Ashlyn’s face is priceless when she hears Dawn’s voice. Ashlyn slowly turns around so she faces the fitness coach. “Dawn, didn’t know you were also going out today.” Ashlyn says, trying to sound cool. “It would be a shame to travel all the way here only to stay in the hotel or in the stadium.” Dawn replies. The others are still laughing, Ashlyn looks at her friends for some help but it looks like this she will have to save her own. Ashlyn stars to stutter something about making a joke. Dawn smirks “See you at training tomorrow” Ashlyn nods. “And Hope. I see you later for your check-up!” Dawn says and walks away. Once Dawn is out of earshot “Nice one Harris.” “Oh Shut up O’Hara. You were the one that suggested the ice cream in the first place.” “Yeah, but I didn’t bring up Dawn.” Ashlyn looks at Kelley before walking away towards the hotel. The others follow and Kelley notices Hope is more at ease than at the beginning of the trip. Hope started to be a bit more her true self.

 

The next day, the team was all together on the pitch. “All right ladies, before we start practice I have a few things to say.” A few grunts could be heard. “The only one that is excused from this meeting is Ashlyn….” Everyone looks surprised at Ashlyn, wondering what she did to be excused from this boring meeting. “Because she has to start running her rounds.” “What?” Ashlyn asks surprised. A few ‘why’s’ and ‘what did you do Harris’ could be heard. “You can start running 3 laps for every scoop of ice cream you ate” Dawn is serious about this kind of stuff. In camp, If you don’t want to run any extra laps you follow Dawn’s rules about what to and what not to eat. Ashlyn grunts, she blames Kelley for this. If Kelley hadn’t come up with the idea of eating Ice Cream she would have never snuck out to get some. Some need to keep themselves from laughing and wondered when Ashlyn was going to learn her lesson about that. She must know by now that Dawn knows everything. “How did you even know?” “It’s Dawn, she always knows” someone says. “If that is truth, can she tell me where Kelley has been sneaking off to every night.” Just like that all the attention was on Kelley. She didn’t realize someone would notice she slips out most nights. Since Tobin is her roommate and she knows where Kelley is and what she is doing. “I have no idea what you are talking about Pinoe.” Kelley tries to say as normal as possible. “I did saw you sneaking out the other night.” Kelley sees Dawn looking at her.. “Oh yeah, My girlfriend called and I didn’t want to wake Tobin.” “Please, a bomb could explode next to Tobin and she would still be asleep.” Dawn decide to step in “The only time I saw Kelley outside in the evening (at night), she was calling her girlfriend or at least I think it was I girlfriend. Not that I was listing to the conversation.”

There was some comments from a few girls but Dawn quickly handled the situation. She sends Ashlyn on her extra laps and continues her speech. Kelley and Hope don’t really listen to it, they both wonder if the coach might have discovered their secret. Kelley looks at Hope and can see a small sign of panic in her eyes. After a couple laps HAO yells “How many do you still have to run?” “8” Ashlyn yells back “And Kelley, I’m blaming this on you. If you hadn’t started about ice cream …” Kelley doesn’t pick up on the rest. Kelley laughs but feels for the keeper. _How many scoops did she ate anyways? 4?5?_

Training had been great, she felt good. Her legs were sometimes shaky after training but. Hope sits down, looking at the forwards training, Kelley managed to get in on, at the other side of the pitch. She hears someone making their way to her. “Are you coming?” Hope looks up and sees Tobin waiting for her. She quickly tries to but fails so she says “I’m just going to stay here for a moment.” Tobin looks at her friend, something in Hope’s eyes was different but she couldn’t really name it. “All right, see you later” Tobin turns around and walks away. Hope lies on her back, trying to get her heart rate down. _It is completely normal to not feel or be able to move your legs after training._ Hope tries to convince herself. It is the second time this tournament that this happened. Maybe it is a combination of the warm weather and her exhaustion, she doesn’t know. But quite frankly, it freaks her out. This situation feels way to familiar. She remembers sitting on the floor in the kitchen, leaning against the wall and looking at her toes. She tried to move them, just a little bit but as hard as she tried they wouldn’t move. “Just move a bit.”. Hope tells herself to move her toes but they remain unmoved. Eventually she bends forwards and uses her fingers to move her toes, but she feels nothing. She than let her fists come rather hard down on her legs “WHY WON’T YOU MOVE?” A tear rolls down her cheek.

 

Hope snaps out of it when she felt someone places a hand on her shoulder. Hope didn’t realize she closed her eyes until she wants to see who it is and has to open her eyes to be able to see. She blinks a few times, the person bending over her isn’t exactly one of the people she expected.

“Are you alright?” “Yeah, just enjoying the sun” Jill cocks an eyebrow and sits down next to Hope. “Can we talk about upcoming games?” Hope pushes herself into a seated position and is relieved to notices she once again can move her legs.

 

Kelley is determined to get to know the others this camp. She knows some players from the youth teams and others from just small interactions after an NWSL game.

This night she is hanging out with Chalupny and HAO. From the beginning Kelley realized HAO is someone you can easy pull a prank on, but HAO is also someone who likes to prank the others. It was the first time she really spent time with Chalupny (Lori) and Kelley didn’t really know a lot about her. She is kind of hard to read, but from the little Kelley has seen it shouldn’t be to hard to pull a prank on Lori. But Kelley believes it’ll be easier to pull a prank on Lori than on Cheney.

Hope begins the evening in her room, taking care of some stuff back home. But when Carli says she will be going out to Skype Brian, Hope says “Stay, I’ll go I need to leave in a couple minutes anyway, Dawn with her check-ups….” Carli gladly accepts the offer and says it won’t take too long. Hope tells her to take all the time she needs and say “hi” to Brian from her. Carli smiles, but she wasn’t planning on making a long call.

Hope grabs her Key and walks to the door “Just send me a text before you go to sleep” and with that Hope is gone. Hope walks in the hallway. She is a bit nervous (and anxious, not that she would ever admit that) she would rather be in her room, reading a book but she promised Kelley she would do everything to make Kelley proud. Hope bites through and goes looking for her teammates. She had already seen Dawn after dinner, but she wasn’t going to let Carli tease her twice in two days about how Kelley has wrapped her around her finger.

Kelley is mid discussions with HAO and Lori about Stanford and UNC, _Next time don’t start a discussion about this against two people who went to that university,_ when Hope walks into the room. If HAO and Lori hadn’t been so busy. They would have noticed the smile appearing on Kelley’s face. “Why don’t we just ask someone who isn’t biased?” Before the other two can argue Kelley yells “Hey Hope, what do you choose, Stanford or UNC?”

HAO and Lori look at Hope, hoping she would chose UNC. Although Hope has no connection with either (So they think) they think they have a pretty good chance of winning this thing. Since they have known Hope longer than Kelley does. The only connection with Stanford for Hope is Barnie.

“Stanford without a doubt!” Lori and HAO recover pretty quick from their initial shock and try to convince Hope otherwise. Hope just looks at Kelley, who mouths her a ‘thank you’. When the two look back at Kelley she just sticks out her tong and does a small celebration dance. “That’s settled” and she quickly changes topic. She is not going to make the same mistake twice in one night.

Hope looks around, some people are just catching up or talking about some show on tv, others are playing ping pong and others are playing board games. Hope settles for Ping Pong, after all she still has a ping pong table standing in their dining room.

By the time Hope walks back into the room, Carli is already asleep. Once in bed she and Kelley text for a while. It feels strange, knowing she is just a couple yards away.

 

A few days and a game (which Hope watched from the bench and Kelley played for only the last 8 minutes) passes. Hope and I didn’t really had some personal time. Sure we had the secret trainings at night but Hope was to focused on the game to get into anything personal. Not that I needed to have sex, but I just want to be able to kiss my girlfriend hold her hand or snuggle into her while we are watching a movie. And Dawn, I swear she is doing it on purpose, if I walk in on Hope one more time in just a sports bra and shorts with molten ice dripping all over her body … I don’t know if I will be able to keep my hands to myself. I mean have you seen Hope’s abs? I have and I can tell you ….. Great now I need to take another cold shower. Kelley walks into the bathroom and she is too lazy to take out her clots so she walks into the shower still fully clothed. They were in need of cleaning anyways.

Hope sits outside, near the pool. She had expected Kelley to be there too. Hope is currently trying to fix a surprise for Kelley. Next to her are Carli and Ashlyn. One of them is typing on her cellphone, the other is looking for some cute puppy pictures.

 

I hear the others laugh and look up only to join them in their laughter. I see Kelley, fully clothed but soaked, leaving a trail of small water pools behind “What did you do this time O’Hara?” Someone calls out Kelley looks at Hope (in bikini) and grunts, _This is so not fair._ “It’s just too hot out here” Kelley says while looking at Hope, she then jumps (still fully clothed) into the pool to cool down. Hope grins, knowing Kelley wasn’t talking about the weather. The others just laugh or shake their head at the defender’s antics.

Kelley steps out of the pool and waits a moment, to let as much water drip off her as possible before making her way to Tobin and Alex, avoiding looking at Hope.

After a while Kelley notices Hope has disappeared. She only noticed because some rookie started talking about her and when she looked up she saw Hope had disappeared. Kelley was about to say something but then she picked up something.

They weren’t gossiping about Hope. They were just talking out loud about the questions they have surrounding Hope’s time she was away from the team, about her way back, about how hard it must have been to no longer be able to use your legs.

 

Kelley steps quietly away. She wanders around and it hit her all over again. She never had asked Hope about the time when she first found out. Off course she had asked about some things but Hope had always answered vaguely and changed topic. She once again realized she didn’t know that much about her girlfriend.

Kelley is surprised when a pair of arms slips around her. “What is going on in that smart brain of yours?” Kelley smiles, “How did you know?”. “You just seem tensed.” “just…” Kelley doesn’t really know how to bring it up without Hope shutting her out. “Thinking about you. About when you first got back home after the accident.” “Where does this come from?” Hope asks surprised. “it’s just the others…” Kelley felt Hope freeze _oh damnit._ Hope turns Kelley around so they are facing each other. “the others?” “It’s just, I heard a few talking about all these questions they have,… and I than I realized even I didn’t know the answer.

Hope let go of Kelley and sits down, signaling Kelley should do the same.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for the long wait. My computer crashed so it took me a bit longer to get this update out. Next update will be posted before the end of the week. Hope you enjoyed it! Let me know what you think of the update. Ideas for next chapters are always welcome.


	24. Chapter 24

flashback

“I can’t move my legs. Why can’t I feel them?” I say in desperation. Christie is shocked but I don’t really register that. She quickly sits down next to me while putting up her hand, hoping the medical staff will hurry a bit more. “Hope, everything will be all right.” Christie says in an attempted to calm Hope down but at the same time she realizes how stupid it sounds. I try to sit up so at least I can look at my legs but Christie pushes me back down. "Hope, I need you to remain calm and to not move." I try to get up again, "I need to see my legs, I need to make sure they are all right."

"Hope your legs are fine, just stop moving!" Christie finally got Hope to stop trying to move. By now the medical staff was already halfway there. Some teammates stood around, in shock.  The medical staff arrives and Christie takes a step back to let them do their job, but Hope grabs her hand. Christie looks in at the keeper and got the first time she sees the fear in Hope's eyes. Meanwhile some other staff members come and make sure Hope is shield away from view. The doctor takes of her cleats. "All right Hope, can you move your left toes for me?" Christie looks down to Hope's feet. “Did they move?" Although they didn't move the medic says "yes." he didn't want to upset her any more. Christie looks surprised at the medic but he was already moving on. Another member of the medical staff puts a collar around Hope's neck. Once they heard she couldn't move or feel her legs they feared the worst, paralysis. The medic asks some questions and Christie tells what she knows.

In meantime Christie had send Broon to the coaching staff to inform them of Hope's condition. Once the medic was finished he wanted to get Hope asap in the hospital. After fully stabilizing the keeper she was carefully put on the backboard. Once fully secured they lifted the board and carried the keeper of the pitch. Christie, still holding Hope's hand accompanies her off the pitch.

Hope vaguely notices the applause she gets. her teammates and opponents still in shock from what just happened. She doesn’t see two American subs coming onto the pitch. Once off the pitch, Sinclair immediately crouches down, she feels sick and wants to throw over. Because of her the best goalkeeper in the world may never walk again. Carm sits down next to her and swings an arm around her. In meantime Ashlyn and Whitney make their way onto the pitch. Each team comes together before the referee blows the whistle and restarts the game. But every single soul in the stadium knows the game could have ended that moment because neither team will really play the remaining 12 minutes.

...

Hope is slowly waking up.  _It was all just a nightmare._ Hope thinks relieved and continues to lie down with her eyes closed, slowly waking up. She then picks up some voices. They are standing just too far away to pick up their entire conversation and it doesn't help that she is still half asleep. She does pick up some parts of the conversation ... cause unknown .... more tests ... paralysis. That is the moment Hope is wide awake. It would be just too much of a coincidence. Hope suddenly realizes she doesn't feel her legs. She pulls of the cover and looks at them. They look normal but she can’t really move or feel them. _Maybe it is because of the narcotics they gave me for the surgery. Wait, did I have surgery? Hope’s brain felt numb and she couldn’t really recall what happened._ Hope than thinks about her nightmare and what she just heard. _No, no this can't be true._ _Hope starts to panic._ __Maybe I'm still dreaming, maybe this is all just a nightmare._ _ Hope pinches herself. _Ouch, no I'm definitely awake._ Hope is silently freaking out so she doesn't notices the voices have come closer. Hope looks up and sees a man in a white lab coat. The man says a lot of things but Hope doesn’t hear one of them because there is only one word that is going through her mind ‘Paralysis’. The doctor looks at her, Hope didn’t really listened so she has no idea if he had asked a questions or if he just waits till she says something. “Can I get some water please?” I say, it might sound ridiculous but that was the first thing that crossed her mind, I also hoped it might buy me some time. I don’t really know why I need time but I just needed to be alone for a moment.

A whole while later there is a knock on the door. “Come in” The door opens and Carli walks into the room. It was then I realized I hadn’t seen any of my teammates since whatever happened. I wasn’t really sure that my ‘nightmare’ really happened, maybe something else happened. Carli sits down on the chair next to the bed, I can see she is a bit uncomfortable. “Did we win?” I ask. If Carli doesn’t know about the game I know my nightmare was just a nightmare and something else happened. _Off course she would ask about the game_ Carli thinks. “Yes we won, after you…” Carli searches for the best way to describe it “After you left we didn’t really play to score, it was more play till the referee blows the last whistle.” Hope looks away for a moment, she knows why Carli is here but to be honest she didn’t want to talk about it. They sat in silent for a couple minutes. “Can you take care of Leo for a while?” Carli is taken by surprise with this question. “Yes, off course” “Thank you.” Hope talks about a lot of things, about almost everything except her current condition and it is starting to bother Carli but since she isn’t the one that is paralyzed she decides to not comment on it.

A few days pass and Carli has been the only one that came by, the only one Hope knows that came by. Carli had been updating the staff on Hope’s condition. The staff decided it was for the best if the others didn’t visit Hope. Abby had been sitting next to her till a half an hour before she originally woke up the first day, the doctor sent her home. Abby had been coming back a few times but Hope had been asleep or was away to have some more things tested. Hope underwent a ton of tests but the result was still the same, the doctors didn’t really know why she couldn’t move or feel her legs. Carli comes by one finale time before going back home. This time she can’t hold herself anymore when Hope started to talk about the new car she bought. She tries to subtle change the subject “How are you?” “I’m fine” “YOU AREN’T FINE HOPE, YOU ARE PARALYZED” before Carli could continue her rant Hope interrupts her “I don’t want to talk about it” “Why not?” “Because it doesn’t help me. Afterwards I will still be not able to move my legs, I will still have to call a nurse to help me out of this bed into the wheelchair so I can go to the toilet, I will still ….” Hope trails off, “ I will still not be able to walk or play soccer. So no, I don’t want to talk about it.”

By the time Carli knew what to reply Hope had already turned away, she had already turned her upper body away and was currently trying to mover her legs with her hands so she was fully turned and not just partially. Carli remains seated but once it is clear Hope doesn’t want to talk to her she stands up and walks towards the door. She opens it and turns around, Hope is lying with her back to the door so Carli can’t see her face “Just know that I’m here for you. If you ever need something or just want someone to talk to.” Hope doesn’t move so Carli turns back around but before she walks away she says “And Hope, there still is a chance you will walk again. There is still a chance you will play soccer again, you just need to want it bad enough.”

End of the flashback.

Hope looks at the horizon for a moment to gather her thoughts. She isn’t really proud about this part of her life and the part that is coming is even worse but she knows she will have to tell Kelley eventually the whole story. Hope takes a deep breath before she tells Kelley about her trip back to Seattle, to the revalidation center. By the time Hope ends her story Kelley has a mixture of feelings, she feels sad but also anger, gratefulness and a couple other feelings. “It’s just, … the past. And it is not something I like to talk about. I know they would like to know how it was but to be honest they will never know because they didn’t got paralyzed, they didn’t. Because if I tell this story people will pity me because of it and that is something I don’t want. Because I WAS WEAK. I don’t want people to feel sorrow because I got lucky. I got to walk again. I have seen people working so much harder than me, they deserve to walk again but they won’t! And what did I do? I felt sorrow for myself, I let it define me. I didn’t fight to get out of the wheelchair because I got comfortable in it, I got used to it.” Hope finishes, hoping Kelley would get it.

 

Kelley didn’t expect this. In her eyes Hope is one of the strongest people she knows. Hope might have almost given up on her way back but the most important part is that she didn’t give up, she fought to walk again. It was silent for a while and Kelley grabs her phone, she puts it aside for a moment and looks at Hope, who is looking at the ground. Kelley makes Hope look at her. “Don’t you ever think again that you don’t deserve to walk again. You might have almost given up in the beginning but you fought for it. You didn’t give up and that is what counts, you fought your way back. You deserve to walk again.” Kelley takes her phone and gives it to Hope. She than kisses Hope’s cheek, presses play and walks away. Although she rather would have watched the video with Hope she knew this was something Hope should see on her own.

The screen lights up and Hope recognizes the video, it is of one of their Skype sessions, when Kelley was in Kansas City. It was the first time Kelley saw Hope walk. Hope had been training for 2 weeks, she wanted to show Kelley more than just a few stumbles she want to show Kelley that she could walk. Looking back at it, it looks awful, it doesn’t even look like walking. Hope smiles at the memory, she did come a long way.

She sees herself picking up her laptop, and that smile, she remembers how proud she was. She didn’t know Kelley recorded the call though and wondered if Kelley might have recorded others.

Hope was about to put away the phone, because she knew the conversation was over but then a smiling Kelley appears in the background and Hope can hear a conversation. “What are you so excited about?” someone off screen asks. “A friend of mine just beat all odds. The doctors told her she would never walk again and today she walked for the first time since her injury.” Kelley answers “Wow! That’s fantastic!” “Yeah, I can’t believe it myself. We still have a long way to go but I’m just so proud and happy.” The other person didn’t appear on screen but Hope recognized the voice. The conversation went on for another minute or so.

_This must have taken place after I already ended the call_

This time the screen remains black and Hope puts the phone away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some more flashbacks will follow in the next chapter.


	25. Chapter 25

  Hope was about to make her way back when someone sits down next to her. Hope chuckles “Do you want Dawn to let you run another couple laps.” “No, I don’t. And I won’t because this time she is not going to find out.” Hope cocks an eyebrow. Ashlyn takes a bite from her ice cream before saying “You are the only one that manages to stay off Dawn’s radar so I figured as long as I stick with you I will be fine.” Hope smirks “You do know that is not true. You found me, I’m sure Dawn knows most of the time where I am.” “All right, maybe she does know from time to time where you are but most of the times she has no clue. So I’ll be fine.” Hope chuckles and they talk while Ashlyn finishes her ice cream.

Hope and Ashlyn make their way back inside. Hope, completely forgotten that she still has Kelley’s phone, says goodnight to Ashlyn and goes to her room. Ashlyn goes to Syd’s room, where most of the team is watching some kind of movie.

 Carli is on her way up when she comes across Abby. “Do you have a minute?” Abby asks. “Yeah, sure. What’s up.” “Not here” Carli looks questioning at Abby but follows her into Abby’s room. “How’s Hope?” “I think she is all right. Why?” “Just, asking” “You do know you can ask her that question, she is here you know” “I know. It’s just …”Abby pauses for a moment “... she has changed” Carli nods in agreement. Hope has changed, but unlike the others Carli knows it is not only that paralysis that changed her, the biggest responsible for the change in Hope is Kelley O’Hara. Since Carli doesn’t really know where Abby is going with this, she waits.

“Did something else happen?” Carli acts shocked “Something else? Like what?” “I don’t know. Maybe…” Abby trails off, not finishing her sentence. “I don’t know if something else happened but I do think that everyone who went through what Hope went through would probably also change.” Abby thinks about that for a moment. “Do you think we did good staying on a distance or should we have been there for her.”

Carli remembers how Abby first didn’t want to leave Hope alone in the hospital, she wanted to be there for when Hope woke up. But the staff ‘ordered’ her back to the hotel just minutes before Hope woke up. After what happened with Tom in the hospital the staff decided Carli was the only one allowed to go visit Hope. What Carli didn’t know was that Abby had gotten to the hospital a few times but she never entered Hope’s room . She doesn’t really know why but she couldn’t get herself into that room, maybe afraid to see the person lying in bed was not the Hope she knew.

“I don’t know if it was the best thing to do. But it turned out all right. She is back and she will tell her story when she is ready.”

 

Hope is surprised to not see Carli in there room. Usually the midfielder would be in bed by now. Hope quickly changes into her pj’s and brushes her teeth before getting into her bed. Carli hasn’t been in the room for too long when a cell phone rings. They both look around, it is not Hope’s nor Carli’s tune. Hope than remembers she still has Kelley’s phone so she jumps out of bed and is just in time to pick up. Normally she would not have taken that call but since it was Erin’s name that appeared on the screen, she figured she was allowed to take it.

Hope ends the call a couple minute later and crawls back into bed. She then notices Carli is staring at her. “What?” “Was that Kelley’s sister?” “Yes” Hope answers, not really knowing why Carli was making such a big deal out of it. “Something wrong with that?” “No, it is just surprising to see you casually talking to your girlfriend’s sister.” Hope just brushes it off and gets back into her bed. She can feel Carli still looking with a smirk at her “Take that smile of your face. It is not that special. I’m sure you talk to Brian’s siblings all the time.” “No it is not that special but for Hope Solo it is, remember Jerramy’s sister?” _What happened to him anyways?_ Carli thought but she was not going to bring him up, she had not been too big off a fan of him from the beginning. The only reason why she never said something to Hope is because he didn’t seem to be bad for her. “Just go to sleep Carli” Hope turns around, grabs her headphone and watches the fragment again before falling asleep.

The next morning Hope is, like most of the times, the first one at breakfast. She orders a coffee and opens her news App on her phone. She forgot to charge her phone so after a couple minutes the battery dies. The waiter brings her her cup of coffee, she thanks him and takes a small sip.  


Flashback

She hasn’t been out of her house in days, she hasn’t been doing much to be honest. Most of the days she spent on the couch, she only got into her wheelchair to go to the front door to accept the food she ordered. She has already missed at least a dozen appointments and Hope doesn’t really know what it is about but today she decided to go. It was the first time since she got back she woke up this early, Hope took some sort of shower, put on some comfy but warm clothes and goes out. The cold hits her a bit, since she hadn’t really left her house since she came back she didn’t know it was that cold. Her hands are freezing but Hope goes forward, she keeps turning the wheels, the faster she gets there, the faster she is out of the cold. But at the same time Hope doesn’t want to go, because why should she? It is not that she will ever walk again.

She comes across a Starbucks, since getting dressed had taken longer than thought she hadn’t drunk her coffee yet (not that she is able to reach it anyways) The door opens and another costumers walks out. That’s when Hope realizes there is no way she is going to be able to get into the store. The threshold is simply too high for her to be able to get over it. Hope sighs and remains seated, debating if she should try to get in or not. Then the door opens again and a woman walks out. “Can I help you?” Hope looks up surprised and notices the woman is working in the Starbucks. “I was just … never mind.” Hope turned away. “What coffee do you normally drink?” Hope stops and turns back around “An Americano.” she answers a bit surprised. “Just wait here a second” The woman runs inside and comes back a couple minutes later with a cup of coffee in her hand. “Here you go” “Thanks” Hope takes the coffee and wants to grab her wallet but the woman says “This one is on me.”

Hope takes a sip, for the first time since long she savors the taste of coffee again and a big genuine smile appears on her face. The heat radiation from the cup and warming her hands is a plus. “Thank you ….” “Kate” “Thank you Kate” “You are welcome” Since Hope can’t get forward with just one hand she will have to drink her coffee here before making her way to the physiotherapist.

“First time in Seattle?” “Not really? Just first time in Seattle with a wheelchair.” “ow” The woman silently says “Good luck” “Thanks” “You might want to avoid the NE 120, it is not really adapted to wheelchairs.” Hope looks at the woman, she looks sympathetic and something in her voice made Hope like her. “Thank you” The woman shivered. “Thanks for keeping me company but you might want to go inside though if you don’t want to get sick.” “Good luck and maybe till tomorrow” “Maybe” Hope answers, and after throwing her empty cup into a trash can she continues her way.   


End of flashback

 

 By the time she is half through her cup of coffee Christie walks around the corner. She noticed the keeper was in another place so she silently sits down and waits till Hope is back in reality. _I really should thank Kate for …. ._ The sound of Christie putting her cup of coffee back onto the table a bit too loud pulls Hope out of her memories. “Hi” Hope says when she notices her captain in front of her. _When did she get in? How long is she already sitting there?_ “Good morning” Christie replies. Hope realizes she hasn’t spent that much time with her captain since she came back onto the team. When Kelley walks into the dining room 40 minutes later, Hope and many other veterans had already left. In the morning they have some kind of tactic briefing and a bit of intel on their opponents before they have training outside. Hope is the first one on the pitch, shortly after she is joined by Carli, Ash, Tobin, Kelley and Cheney. This training session is different from the last one. Today they train rain on their own. No scrimmage with the whole team. Just the defenders training with the defenders, midfielders with midfielders, keepers with keepers and forwards with forwards. Hope is focused on her performance, she wants to do better, she knows she has to do better. Her legs are still too slow and her jumps aren’t high enough for her liking. While they have a much needed water break Hope looks at the others and sees Kelley struggle. She watches the defenders for a while. she sees Kelley getting frustrated, her touches are getting more aggressive. At the end of the training Dawn is once again giving advice on what they could improve. The team is waiting for who will need to run the extra laps this time. Most of them have their money on Ashlyn some have their money on JJ or Chrystal but Ashlyn is the biggest favorite. Ashlyn was sure she would not be doing any laps today so she started already packing her stuff, meaning taking off her gloves and putting on her jacket. “…Ashlyn 6 laps” Ashlyn grunts, how was this even possible? “Come on. You only have to run 6. JJ has 9” Ashlyn once again grunts and sheds a last look on her best friend before she takes off and starts running.

“What did she do this time to try and hide it?” Ali asks. The group looks at each other, none seeming to know. “She sat with me, stating that since I’m most of the times not on Dawn’s radar she would be safe.” Hope says before joining Ashlyn in her extra laps. “What are you doing?” Ashlyn asks once Hope caught up with her. “Can’t let you get fitter than I am, can I?” Hope replies with a smile and together they run the 6 laps. Ashlyn did notice that by the time the 4th lap came around Hope struggled getting forward so she subtle dropped the pace a bit.  Once finished with their 6 laps Heiff is waiting for Hope. I think he was just tired of having an inbox full of mail regarding Hope’s condition or people asking him for an exclusive on Hope’s comeback story.

So while Hope is handling all the press stuff Kelley goes shopping with a few others. They had only done 3 or 4 stores before Kling got a text, Meghan hoped she made up an believable excuse and took off. “What’s up with her?” Kelley asks after Meghan ran out of the store. “Don’t really know, that’s the third time this tournament she just disappears.” Crystal answers. Kelley nods absently, trying to figure out what would be important enough for Kling to just take off.

A few stores later Kelley spots a bracelet that would look stunning on Hope. But she couldn’t buy it now, or look at it for too long for that matter because if she was going to buy this for Hope and the others had seen her looking at it, it would raise suspicion once Hope would be wearing it. So Kelley quickly but subtle ushered the others to the next store, making a mental note to come back on her own (or with Tobin) to get the bracelet. They walk passed a few ice cream stands but they decided to pass, not wanting to run any extra laps.  


Once back at the hotel, Kelley quickly drops off her bags and changes into something more ‘pool appropriate’ and makes her way to the pool. Almost the entire team is assembled around the pool. Some are reading, others are on their cell phone, a few are playing some game, some girls are swimming and the others are just hanging around. Kelley spots one of her fellow defenders sitting alone and decides to get to know her a bit better. Kelley lets herself fall down on the chair next to Ali’s and sighs. “Not used to going shopping with the girls?” Ali asks with a smile. “I thought I was but apparently I’m not. Remind me never to go shopping with them” Kelley mumbles. Ali chuckles. By the time Ashlyn comes back from wherever she went Ali and Kelley are talking about doing a road trip before Alex’s wedding. Ashlyn is all in, she knows Kelley will be more fun to surf with than Ali and Ashlyn likes the sometimes hyperactive defender. Whenever Kelley was around, people seemed happy.

“You should bring your girlfriend. That way Ali isn’t alone while we go surfing. Unless she surfs too.” Kelley smiles and thinks for a moment, although she would love to have Hope with her on that road trip she knows that that is probably not going to happen “She surfs a bit but she will probably choose to stay on the beach. I will ask but she is pretty busy right now.” Kelley answers, and that wasn’t even a lie.  


Not much later Hope walks by and Kelley, forgetting the others don’t know about them says “Babe…..” Before she can finish her sentence (asking if Hope would join them on the road trip) she hears a few gasps and everyone, including Hope looks at her in surprise. Kelley quickly shuts her mouth and mentally slaps herself for her mistake. “Kelley, I know you miss your girlfriend but that is no reason for you to replace her. I don’t think she will like that” “I don’t know about that, you are kind of hot so I think she will make an exception?” Kelley quickly counters with a wink. Hope laughs, shakes her head and continues her walks. The others are still shocked.

Once Hope is out of earshot they all turn to Kelley. “What?” “I don’t know what is more shocking. You calling Hope Solo ‘babe and hot’ or Hope not killing you after you called her babe.” Tobin tries really hard to not laugh, _If only they knew._.

 

Hope was on her way to the pool when she received a reminder. She sees it moments before she passed the pool, she completely forgot about it and quickly checks her calendar, she can still do it. But it will cut her time with Kelley between this tournament and January camp short. She knows she will also have to talk to Heiff about it.

Still laughing about the Kelley’s little slip, but she was glad she could come up with something that quick, Hope walks back into the hotel. Hope knocks on the doorpost and looks inside. “Do you have a moment?” Heiff puts his laptop aside and says “Off course.” “So I know what we talked about yesterday but I totally forgot I already made some plans.” After explaining the whole thing, Heiff tells her he will check in with the organization and see if it possible to do it her way. She thanks him and goes back to her room to grab her book.

By the time Hope arrives back at the pool the others barely recovered from what happened earlier. She sits down next to Carli. From time to time she looks up from her book and watches Kelley .One time she notices Cheney sneak off. Hope follows her with her eyes, she puts down her book and asks Carli to keep an eye on her stuff (not that any of her teammates would steal but they weren’t the only ones in the hotel.)

Hope finds Cheney bend over some bench. She quickly makes it to Cheney and puts her hand on Cheney’s back. “Are you all right?” Cheney didn’t answer but it was clear she was having trouble breathing, she bend even more forward. Hope grabs her shoulders and pulls her straight so Cheney’s lungs have more room to breathe “Just take deep breathes” Hope adapts her breathing and breaths louder than normally, hoping Cheney would copy her breathing. A few minutes later Cheney’s breathing is finally back to normal.  Hope breaths back normally and waits for Cheney to tell her what just happened.

“Thanks” Cheney says “You’re welcome” Hope waited for Cheney to tell her what was going on but when she didn’t said anything Hope didn’t push it, instead she started talking about her own.

 

Cheney is surprised when Hope starts talking about herself, Hope isn’t one to talk about private stuff. She may have told a few other players she would talk about it but Cheney knew deep down Hope would rather not talk about it. It happened, move on.

Kelley had noticed the worried look in Hope’s eyes so after, what she believed, enough time to make it not suspicious Kelley picks up her stuff and goes looking for her keeper. She finds her with Cheney, it looks serious so Kelley makes her way back to the pool without having made her presence known to Hope or Cheney. Everyone starts packing their stuff and go inside for lunch Kelley once again makes her way to where Hope and Cheney were. They were still talking, Hope was talking and Cheney was listening. Once Kelley got close enough she realized Hope was talking about herself. Although she would rather not interrupt them and let Hope talk about it she knows the three of them will have to hurry if they want to put on something different before dinner.

 

“Hope, Cheney.” Kelley calls out to make her presence known The two look up and Cheney notices Kelley is carrying her stuff. “Dinner in 5” Cheney turns back to Hope “Thank you” , Hope nods and Cheney hurries to get her stuff from Kelley. They watch her run into the hotel. “Everything ok?” Kelley softly asks while they walk inside. “Yeah, I think so” Hope didn’t like to lie but she didn’t want to upset Kelley, she didn’t know how much Kelley had seen and since Cheney didn’t told her what was wrong she should not worry Kelley. Plus she wasn’t entirely sure Kelley solely meant Cheney’s situation.


	26. Chapter 26

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two updates today because it took me way too long to write them. Hope you enjoy it.

After dinner Hope goes back to her room while Kelley hangs around with the others in Alex’s and Ashlyn’s room.  Kelley and Tobin walk back to their room.

Once in bed, Kelley asks “How is Claire?” “Good I think, she is busy with PSG” “Is she coming to the States for the holidays?” “No, I’m going to her. She has a tighter schedule and that also gives me the opportunity to train with PSG.” Kelley nods, knowing how devastated Tobin was when US soccer told her she was not allowed to sign with PSG since they wanted to have her available for camps. “Next time you call her tell her I said hi and that she urgently needs to come to the states again.” Tobin smiles, she loves that her best friend and girlfriend are good friends in spite of them not really being able to communicate since Kelley’s French was as bad as Claire’s English, maybe even worse. It had been a long time since she heard from her girlfriend maybe next time she should call her instead of sending her a text message. Kelley suddenly remembers something “How well do you know Kling?” “I used to know her pretty well at UNC but I kind of lost contact with her lately. Why?” “It is just …. She has been acting strangely, today she received a text and made up some excuse to leave. According to Crystal it is not the first time it happened this tournament.” Tobin thought for a moment, what would be Important enough for Meghan to leave her friends. That’s when she remembered a rumor she heard after playing Tyresö last year. But since Tobin isn’t really the type to gossip, especially if she wasn’t sure about it, she just says “I don’t know, maybe she just forget to call her parents or so …” Normally Kelley would have picked up on the nervous tone in Tobin’s voice but currently Kelley is trying to locate her phone so she isn’t fully paying attention to Tobin. Tobin is glad Kelley didn’t noticed it and decides to leave the defender doing whatever it is she is doing and texts her girlfriend. Tobin does make a mental note to check up on Meghan, just to make sure is all right because the last thing she wants to happen to her friend is what happened to her in ’11.

Kelley is balancing on the edge of her bed, trying to grab the chair standing next to the bed for more support. At that moment someone knocks on the door, surprising Kelley, who misses the chair and falls onto the ground. That is enough to take Tobin out of her thoughts, she missed the last minute but is surprised to see Kelley lying on the ground. Another knock on the door, Tobin jumps up and goes to answer the door, she is surprised to Hope standing there. Hope quickly enters, not wanting to be seen by any teammates who might check on the commotion (Kelley’s fall made quite some noise). Hope walks further into the room and spots Kelley lying on the floor. “What are you doing?” She asks, she than looks at Tobin, who puts up her hands. “I was looking for my phone but didn’t want to get out of bed so I tried to lean on the chair. But you knocking on the door surprised me and I missed the damn thing.” Hope and Tobin laugh “You better have a good reason to come here, otherwise this bruise is ….” Hope than takes Kelley’s phone out of her pocket “Good enough of a reason?”  


Tobin senses Hope didn’t just come by to drop off the phone so she quickly says “I promised I would call Claire tonight” Tobin than takes her headphones and laptop and walks to the balcony. Normally she wouldn’t talk to her girlfriend in a place where everyone can hear them but since they will be talking in French she figures it will be safe to call. After a minute or so a very sleepy Claire appears on the screen. Tobin quickly makes the calculations and realizes that it is around 2 am in Paris.

 

 

“I still have to thank you for the other night, I just kind off … it was just too much . And you telling me that I didn’t give up, that I wasn’t weak really meant something. Thank you” Kelley hugs her girlfriend and Hope can feel her smile. “How many more video calls did you record though?” Hope asks after a while When Kelley doesn’t answer Hope lets go and takes a step back so she can look at her. “Just some other moments” Kelley answers but the look in her eyes betrays her.

“What did you wanted to ask me at the pool?” Hope asks with a smile. “Sorry about that. It is just, I was kind of tired and forgot.” “It’s all right, but we just have to be careful.” Kelley nods “I know it is probably not a good idea but I’m going to ask you anyways. Ali, Ashlyn and I are planning to do a road trip before Alex’s wedding. I know the area pretty well from my time at Stanford and Ali’s brother lives in LA so he has send her some places they should check out.” Kelley saw Hope’s expression change “But I can always say I’m too busy, we will see each other in January camp” Kelley adds “Not that Jill is going to call me up for January camp or any other for that matter” Kelley mutters but Hope heard it.

Hope takes Kelley’s hand “You will make it Kell, we just have to train a bit more but eventually Jill will see how good off a player you are, once she sees that, she will have no choice but to call you up.” “Did you see my training today? I was horrible.” Kelley says while looking at her feet. Hope had seen it and it was kind of horrible but she was not going to say Kelley that. “No I didn’t. But you are just learning a new position, it is kind of normal you suck in it“ Kelley looks up shocked and once her eyes meet Hope’s she playfully slaps Hope’s arm. Hope remembered they were talking about the road trip. “About the road trip, although I do think we should wait a bit more before we let the team know of us, I would love to come but I cannot. Remember the veteran I met in Kansas City?” Kelley nods “He asked me to this kind of event and normally I would have said no but to him,  I couldn’t.” Kelley nods, she totally forgot about that, before Hope got out of her wheelchair she thought about it from time to time but ever since Hope walks again it has been out of her mind. “I should go with you.” “No, go on that road trip with Ali and Ashlyn, you can always take Erin with you. I’m sure she would love that. And I don’t even know if they are going to allow me to start, since I no longer am in a wheelchair.”

 

Once Hope goes back to her room Kelley lets Tobin know she can come back inside. She than takes her phone and calls her sister.

 

The next day, they first have a training session in the gym, Dawn still keeping a close eye on Hope. But Hope knows better than to try to do more when Dawn is around. At training, Jill keeps placing Kelley on Hope’s team, she feels like Kelley learns a lot from Hope. Although it is strange to learn defense from a goalkeeper, they seem to work. So far Kelley hasn’t smashed into Hope jet so and she doesn’t seem to mind the yelling.

Since it is game day tomorrow Kelley and Hope don’t train this evening. Although they knew they probably won’t play. Kelley hangs out with Tobin, Alex and a couple others while Hope is in her room, reading some book.

The team preps for the game against Argentina. Naeher, the number 3 goalkeeper is getting her first cap. Kelley is a bit disappointed she doesn’t get the start but she expected not to get the start. It had been raining for hours, the team isn’t really looking forward to play on a muddy pool and when pictures of the flooded stadium show up they hope the game will be postponed.. Then they got word, the game would be delayed because of the weather and eventually they got word the game would be postponed till the next day.

The team heads back to the hotel. Most are already planning on watching a couple movies, others want to catch up on their series. Hope was going to go to her room to read a book or something like that but after the look she gets from Kelley, Hope diverts her path and decides to join the movie-watching group. Hope had been slacking on her efforts to hang out with the others out of training lately.

After having watched two movies Hope decides it is time to go to bed and takes a rain check on the third. “Even my grandmother stays up longer” someone mutters But Hope knows the voice enough to know it was Kelley who said that. “Has your grandmother a game to play tomorrow?” “yes, a game of bridge.” Kelley first wanted to answer ‘no, but neither do you’ but that seemed a bit too harsh.

The others are surprised by the little banter between the defender and the keeper, eventually Hope does stay for half the movie. Earning another remark from the defender when she silently stands up and walks out of the room in the middle of the movie. Hope smirks “Goodnight” she says and walks into the hallway. On her way to her room she comes across a dripping wet Klingenberg. “You do know they postponed the game because of the bad weather. The least you could have done is wearing a coat….” “I know, but it stopped raining for a couple minutes and I figured I could make it back before it started raining again….” _Boy was I wrong_ Hope noticed the coming back part but decided not to ask where she went “Goodnight and make sure to take a hot shower before you go to sleep.” “Goodnight” Megan replies while thanking |God that Hope didn’t ask where she came from. Hope silently enters her room, knowing Carli will probably be sleeping.

 

The game against Argentina ended in a 7-0 victory for the US. After the game Hope and Kelley sit outside, out of view from the others. Hope’s arms are secure around Kelley. “How are your legs? I know you train hard at home but it is not the same here.” Kelley rubs her hands over Hope’s legs. Hope freezes for a second and hopes Kelley didn’t notice. “The temperature isn’t ideal, it is too hot, my legs are faster tired here than in Seattle but apart from that I’m fine.” “So it is the weather that is responsible and not the fact that you are just old and …” Kelley asks with a smirk. “I think I have proven enough times I’m not old” Hope counters When Kelley doesn’t want to affirm that Hope starts tickling Kelley. “All right” Kelley says out of breath “You are not old…” Hope stops tickling Kelley and gives her a kiss on the cheek “Thank you” “You are super old” Kelley tries to get away before Hope can launch another attack on her ribs but Hope holds her secure. Kelley is out of breathe, laughing too hard, Hope launches another short attack before stopping and just holding Kelley close while Kelley tries to catch her breathe.  


A while later, “I really miss this, just a quiet moment with the two of us.” “I do to but you do know in the next month and a half we will barely have any time for private moments like this.” They both think about their schedule for the next month and realize they will be very busy. Hope places a soft kiss on Kelley’s neck. This is the furthest they have come in two weeks. The thought of not going to have any private time with Hope but see her half naked is driving Kelley crazy.

 

Kelley walks inside, bumping into Pinoe and a few others. “Hi Kell, where did you go?” “Just getting some fresh air” Kelley pulls out her phone and adds “And sending some texts to my girlfriend” while sending a text to warn Hope that she should stay outside for some longer. “How is she doing?” HAO asks, curious to know a bit more about this mysterious game. “How are we hearing only now about her? What’s her name?” Someone else asks. “Where did you guys meet?” another one asks “Can we see a picture?” Kelley was overwhelmed by all the questions. Kelley yawns and says “I’m kind of tired from the game maybe I’ll tell tomorrow” “Come on Kelley, you only played like 6 minutes or so.” Kelley feigns hurt “See Ya” and keeps walking away.  


Hope was about to walk back inside when someone sits down next to her. “What was the first thing that went through your mind after you hit that post?” it is the first time since Hope told them that someone finally found the guts to come to Hope and ask her about it. Hope was surprised, she had expected someone else to come first. Hope gets back comfortable and starts talking.

At training, they are waiting for Dawn to end her speech so they can go back to the hotel. “And today’s winners are Crystal 5 laps,  …..  and Ashlyn 6 laps” “HA I KNEW IT” Pinoe held out her hand to Moe, to collect. Ashlyn wanted to see if Dawn was bluffing or not so she says “I didn’t even eat an ice cream this time” “So you were not the one who was eating 2 scoops of chocolate ice cream?” “Oh come on, how did you find out this time?” Dawn just smiles and waits for Ashlyn to start running.

 

“When will she ever learn that Dawn knows everything about all that stuff.” “What did she this time to try to hide it?” This time it is Syd that knows the answer “ “Should we tell her that Dawn ….” “No, not yet”

Hope and Carli do some extra training while Ashlyn runs her extra laps. While she is running she looks at Hope. Hope is almost in top shape, although her legs are not that strong, her upper body is super strong. And unlike many had expected, Hope has no problem diving. Ashlyn did see her a few times the fear in Hope’s eyes when she got too close to the post after a dive. Ashlyn is glad her friend is back but at the same time she knows her time as starting goalkeeper probably has ended. So Ashlyn accelerates knowing she will have to prove herself once again. She also makes some resolutions, ‘from next camp on, no more ice creams when at camp’.  


In meantime, Kelley puts on her warmest sweater before sitting down in the ice bath. Not much later Ali joins her. Ali likes her new fellow defender, Kelley brings the laughter and jokes back to the backline. After Mittsy retired the backline kind of got serious. They end up talking about the road trip, “My girlfriend can’t join us but if it is all right with you and Ashlyn I would like to take my sister with me.” “Sure” Ali figured, if Kelley sister looked anything like Kelley they would be in for some fun. Kelley was glad. After Erin’s call she wanted to give her sister some good time off. Kelley tells a bit more about her sister, from time to time without knowing she mentions her girlfriend a few times. Ali notices how Kelley’s eyes lit up every time she talks about her girlfriend. That is also the moment that Ali realized that whoever Kelley’s girlfriend is, she must be someone special, someone who truly loves Kelley. The two continued talking, even when they got out of the ice bath.

After the extra training with Carli, Hope and Carli both made their way to the ice baths. Hope noticed Kelley and Ali deep in conversation walking towards the elevators and figures they are probably talking about the road trip. Hope really is bummed she can’t go but Kelley’s and hers relationship has to stay a secret till at least after the world cup. She didn’t want Kelley to get thrown off the team because of her relationship with the keeper.  


“What are you ladies talking about?” “We are talking about the road trip, is it all right if Kelley brings her sister instead of her girlfriend.” “Off course she can come with us.” She notices the look Ali gives her but decides to ignore it and adds “Although I would love to meet the girl that can put up with you as girlfriend.” Kelley playfully slaps Ashlyn “I’m not that bad”. The three of them continue planning.

 

Once Kelley has dropped her stuff in her room she goes looking for Dawn. Kelley walks into Dawn’s office I walk around, looking for Dawn, I walks into the room and throw my head back, _Come on …._

Hope is sitting on a treatment table in just compression shorts and a sports bra, she clearly just came out of the ice bath..

I stood there for a moment completely forgetting why I was looking for Dawn. “O’Hara?” I snap out of it “Forget about it, I will come back another time” I silently grunt and walk away. “What was that about?” Dawn asks out loud. “I have no idea” Hope replies with a smirk Ten minutes later Dawn has finished her checklist while Hope takes off the electrodes.  


While Dawn is scribing down some last notes, Hope puts on her shirt. “Any weird feeling in your legs?” Since Hope had been lying all camp long about that one she figured she could lie one more time. “Not really, just from time to time when it is really hot and I have been training for sometimes there is this tingling in my legs but it disappears quite quick once I take a break.” Dawn nods, she had expected this answer, Hope had been giving her something like that all camp.

Hope walks back to her room and comes across Cheney, who stops her. “thanks again for the other day, it was just too hot and I know I should have taken it easy since it was a long time since I had eaten or drunk something but I kind of forgot that and well you know what happened.” “You’re welcome. It could have happened to every one of us so don’t sweat it. Just remember to take care of yourself next time.” Cheney nods, they walk together to their hall way, where they split up and they both walk into their own room.  


Last training of the tournament, apparently no one wanted to run the extra laps on last training because Dawn ended her talk without sending anyone on extra laps. The teams starts walking away, Ashlyn is smiling and chuckling silently. “Oh, before I forget, Ashlyn 4 laps” The others all laugh at Ashlyn change in expression. “This woman is impossible, how did she find out this time.” “Ever thought about the fact that maybe she didn’t saw you buy or eat the ice cream but that she knows the lady who sells the ice creams?” “Wait, are you saying it is the ice cream lady who rat me out to Dawn?” Hope, Ali, Carli, Whitney and a couple others are all smiling. “You knew?” Ashlyn says while looking first at Ali and then at Whit, shocked that her best friends didn’t told her. Ashlyn hasn’t even rounded the first corner before she is joined by the others. After training, everyone packs their bags, the team will go directly from the stadium to the airport. Once they are done they hang out together, after dinner some hang out, others go to their rooms to sleep.

 

The last game comes around and Hope knows she is not going to get any minutes. Kelley is surprised when Jill tells her she’ll play forward. Kelley is also confused, first Jill tells her to change from forward to defender and now she wants her to play as a forward? It takes Jill a while to locate Hope. Hope is surprised when Jill asks her if it is all right if she puts her in goal for tomorrow’s game. Although Hope loves to play, she is not really sure she deserves it to play, Ashlyn and Alyssa both have been working so hard. Hope believed they deserved to play but when Jill says she wants Hope to play some games with this team before the start of the world cup Hope accepts the offer. It makes her also happy that Jill considers her a candidate to fill one of the three goal keeper spots on the World Cup roster.

They didn’t play that good, Although they prevented the Brazilians from scoring, they also could not get the ball in the back of the net. Hope earns another shut out. Kelley was not satisfied with her play, although she has been a forward all her life, she finally started doing some things as a defender and she now she had once again to change everything back. The team didn’t worry too much about the result, some critics say they should since it is only a couple months before the start of the world cup but they know they usually play better. They came off break so it is normal their play was below their level.

Although the game ended in a draw, the Brazilian team was announced winners of the tournament. After the medal ceremony, the team quickly showers and makes their way to the airport. Kelley, tired from running around falls asleep on the flight back home. Hope, who still doesn’t like flying, takes out her book and starts writing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two updates today because it took me way too long to write them. I'll try to get another update out this week but that is only if the internet in my hotel (I'm going to Portugal for the Algarve Cup) is good enough and if it is not too hard to write it on my phone /update from my phone.


	27. Surprise

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Had some time on the flight to write this update. Will check for errors once I'm back home. Hope there aren't too many of them.

After the Brazil tournament things got hectic. Hope and Kelley went to Kelley's parents for Christmas. In meantime they continued training, sometimes they were joined by the two other O'Hara siblings on an early morning jog. But most of the times it was just the two of them. The day after Christmas Erin and Kelley were set to travel to the west coast for their road trip but Hope changed their plans a bit.

Instead on being on a flight to LA the three were currently on a flight to Boston. "Tell me again. What are we exactly going to do in Boston?" Kelley asks for the second time in 10 minutes. "You'll see" Hope says and turns back to her book. Kelley looks at her sister but Erin signals she doesn't know either. Kelley gives up and briefs her sister on Ali and Ashlyn. So Erin has at least the feeling she knows those two a bit before they leave on their road trip.

Hope leads them swiftly through the airport, not stopping to avoid being spotted by fans/ journalists. A couple minutes later they are sitting in a cab driving to God knows where. The cab driver pulls over and Kelley looks at Hope. They are parked next to a soccer pitch. Hope pays the driver and steps out of the car.

The three women walk into a small building. Hope and Kelley change into a working out outfit. While the two change Erin disappears out of the room. Kelley is so focused on wondering what they are doing here and why they are here that she doesn't notices her sister walked out. Hope leads Kelley to the pitch. A woman is doing some warming up exercises but once she spots them she quickly stops and sprints towards them. The woman almost jumps on Hope and when Kelley see the two hugging, she doesn't know why, but she feels jealous. The two woman quickly catch up and Kelley notices the woman looks familiar.

Kelley is wondering from where she knows the woman when the blond one turns around, "you must be Kelley". That's when it hits her, the woman standing in front of her is Heather Mitts. When Kelley doesn't respond Mittsy looks back at Hope. "I promise you, her defending skills are better than her manners" Hope says while nudging Kelley " In her defence though. I didn't really tell we would be meeting you. I just told her we were going to Boston for meeting up with someone." Heather's phone rings so she quickly goes to get it. "You didn’t say we would be training with Heather Mitts?” Kelley says enthusiastic. Hope smiles, she loved it when she could make Kelley this ecstatic.  “Well, Since I’m not a left back I figured I should look for someone who could teach you everything about being a left back.” Kelley smile even got bigger. Kelley quickly kisses Hope on the cheek and jumps when she hears a whistle.  Heather is looking at them, “Go. We only have one day. You have to be on the other side of the country by noon tomorrow.” Kelley turns and jogs towards Mittsy. When she noticed Hope wasn’t following she turned back around “Aren’t you training with us?” “Not today” Hope signals for Kelley to go to Heather.  Hope walks towards the back inside to change again. She only changed into her working out outfit to not blow her surprise. She than quickly makes her way to Erin and together they watch Kelley and Heather train.

Once Kelley has showered Mitts drives the four of them back to the airport. She waits in the car while Hope accompanies the two O'Hara's into the airport. With the risk of getting spotted/ recognised by another traveller Hope quickly says goodbye and tells them she will see them in a couple days. Kelley thanks Hope and wishes her good luck before following her sister to the security. Hope watches them until she cannot see them anymore before making her way back to Heather.

On the ride to Heather's home Hope lets Heather talk about what she has been doing since she retired. On their way they picked up Heather's son, Connor. Hope busies herself with watching over Connor while Heather prepares dinner. A.J is out of town so it is just threw three of them. Heather is surprised by Hope. Although Hope always acted friendly to the babies on the team she never volunteered to keep them busy. But that was not the only change Heather noticed.

At dinner the questions about her comeback start coming so Hope knows it is only a matter of time before Mittsy brings up Kelley. "So, you and Kelley" Hope turns her glass a few times before absently saying "me and Kelley"From time to time she could not believe it herself, they seem so different but she really loves Kelley. “I must say, I was a bit surprised When you asked if I wanted to give someone some training I knew that whoever that girl was, she is someone important to you . I was surprised when you and Kelley showed up today. I have been following Kelley's play with the Reign and I must say she played pretty amazing." Hope smiles.

It is true, Kelley really had a pretty amazing season with the Reign, she started the season with the second, somewhere passed the half of the season she made it to the pro team and by the end she was a starter. "I was confused. Why would Jill wants to convert a star playing forward to a left back? Granted the USWNT has already some star playing forward but i thought it would be a waste of talent. That was until I played with Kelley. If she keeps training like this, she wi be on the World Cup roster as a left back."

"But enough about soccer. I want to know what it is exactly that thing between you two." Hope blushes a bit "she is my girlfriend" she then says silently but proudly. "No way? Who would have imagined Hole Solo falling for someone like Kelley O'Hara." Hope blushes some more. HAO told Heather all about their new rookie, so Heather new that once Kelley was a left back she would have an adequate replacement, not only for the soccer part but also for the pranking part.

Heather asks some more questions and wonders why HAO would have kept that form her. "Just one thing. You cannot tell anyone about this." "About you and Kelley?" Hope nods. "Hope, you can't keep that a secret, from what I know about Kelley is that she is someone who tells her friends everything. You cannot ask her to lie to her friends. keeping it a secret will destroy her innocence, it will..." But Hope interrupts her, "Tobin also knows so she has some people she can talk to. But I did it to protect her. What do you think US SOCCER will do once they find out?" It was silent for a moment. Heather knew what Hope was talking about. Same happened to Abby and Sarah, difference with them was that they didn't know US SOCCER would never call Sarah up again, no matter how good her play was or how well she fitted in the team.

Hope knows what will happen once that particular part of her private life gets out. So she will do everything in her peer ton prevent that from happening "I don't want Kelley not getting a chance to prove herself just because she happened to fall in love with the keeper." Heather nods. "I understand but it sucks." "Yeah, it does."

Kelley spots Ashlyn firsts and takes off. She jumps on the keeper's back and hugs her tightly. Ashlyn was completely taken by surprise with this, hadn't she recognised the high pitched yell she would have dropped the stranger clinging onto her. The four girls sit outside. For Kelley and Erin it had been a while since they have been here. For Ali and Ashlyn it is the first time. "You and Tobin lived together in this house?" Ashlyn asks again in disbelieve. "Yeah, for a year. We played for the same team. And living together was way more fun.  Than renting some small studio in my own." Kelley chuckles at some of the memories, she misses having her middy close. But Kelley tells herself Tobin and her should come back to the house before season start. Just the two of them. They called it a relatively early night, since they would start their road trip tomorrow.


	28. january camp, part1

****

“HAPPY NEW YEAR BABE” A clearly tipsy Kelley shouts into her phone. _It is only 2100 there, how drunk is she going to be when midnight comes around?_ Hope cringes a bit and quickly holds the phone further away from her ear. “Happy new year to you too babe” Hope replies with a smile. She than adds “Although officially YOU have to wait a couple more hours.” “I know. But I wanted to celebrate with you.” Kelley says and pouts, not that Hope can see that. Hope’s smile grows a bit bigger. _God she loves this girl_

They talk for a couple more minutes before Kelley gets dragged away by Ali. The last thing Hope hears before the line goes silent is “Kelley, put your phone away, it isn’t even midnight yet, and join me on the dancefloor.”

 

 

Hope is already asleep when her phone rings again. “HAPPY NEW YEAR BABE!!” an even more drunk Kelley yells this time, her voice already getting hoarse. “Happy new year babe” Hope says, sleep evident in her voice. It is hard to understand Kelley, there are too many background noises and Kelley is not really talking very clearly

Hope does manages to understand that Kelley is about to pass the phone.

“NO NO NOOOO, Kelley! Do NOT pass the phone” Hope says in panic, fearing their teammates will recognize her voice.

The only thing Hope hears now, are a couple of drunken teammates. Kelley is not one of them so Hope fears she has already passed the phone.

“Happy new year dude” A surprisingly sober Tobin says. Hope lets out a sigh of relief “Happy new year to you too Tobs.” “Thanks” “So how’s the party?” “Good, although most of them are drunk or getting there. I think I saw Syd … ” Tobin quickly stops, not finishing her sentence, she had heard the concern in Hope’s voice so she quickly adds “But, I’m looking after Kelley and the others so don’t worry.” “Thank you.” Hope says, she hasn’t really seen Kelley drunk but she knows how Kelley is when she is not drunk, she can only imagine what a drunk Kelley would be like.

Shortly after they end the call, Hope wanting to go to sleep again and Tobin rejoins the party.

 

 

Hope just finished training and decides to call her girlfriend. Although it is already after noon on the west coast Hope says “good morning beautiful” “Sssht, not so loud” a sleepy Kelley growls. Hope chuckles. “How was training?” Kelley asks after a while” “Good, hard. I’m pretty sure  I won’t be able to use my arms in the next couple of hours” “Good thing you are a keeper” Kelley chuckles Hope waves at another athlete passing by so when Hope simply says “Yeah. When are you guys continuing your road trip? Are you going to stay in Sand Diego for a couple days or are you leaving today?” Kelley is a bit disappointed, thinking her little joke went unnoticed by the keeper, “We are leaving today” Kelley replies while looking on her watch, she has 2 hours to pack her stuff, take a shower and eat something before they leave again. “I hope you are not driving.” Hope says seriously, driving the day after partying till way after midnight, not a good idea. “Don’t worry Tobin is going to drive the first part.” They talk for a couple more minutes before Hope is called away and Kelley really needs to get moving if she wants to make it in time.

A couple days have passed and the 5 girls spent the last days of the road trip at Kelley’s and Tobin’s beach house.

Ashlyn, Kelley and Tobin are out surfing while Ali and Erin stay on the beach, working on their tan. After a while Ali decides this is the perfect time to get some more info on Kelley’s girlfriend.

Ali is surprised to hear Erin talk so positively of Kelley’s girlfriend. This only confirmed Ali’s previous thoughts, whoever this girl might be, she is someone special. But once Erin says something about Kelley wanting to keep it private for a while longer Ali backs off and changes topic. If there is one thing she respects is the wishes to keep their private life private. If Kelley choses to not talk about it than Ali is not going to ask around, poking for some more details of this mystery girl.

But at the same time Ali couldn’t shake the thought that Kelley’s girlfriend must be someone they know. Otherwise Kelley would not be so persistent about not talking about her girlfriend.

Meanwhile on the water, Tobin and Kelley watch Ashlyn getting slammed into the water by a semi large wave. “Dude, I think someone is asking your sister out about your girlfriend. ” Kelley looks a bit further, at her sister and Ali. Tobin might be right, but she knows Erin won’t spill the secret.

Kelley gets her teammates are curious but she does whishes they would back off a bit. Even if she would be dating someone they didn’t know, Kelley would not be spilling every detail about their relationship, She thinks a relationship is between those two people, and others may ask and she will tell them a few stories but she would never talk about the more private stuff (like her feelings or cute moments between her and Hope) The only person who will ever get those stories out of her is her sister.

A few waves later, the 3 decide they have surfed enough for today and they make their way back to the shore. Kelley looks at her sister, who gives her a subtle thumbs up, indicating everything is all right. They all carry some bags or a surfboard back to the house.

Once back at Kelley’s and Tobin’s beach house, they quickly drop everything. “I still cannot believe you guys lived together” Ashlyn says and looks at the two, “It was pretty great actually.” Kelley says while her mind flashes back to that time. “Yeah, we should do that again, maybe in the off season or so.” …

While the last ones are taking a shower Kelley and Erin prepare dinner. Erin talks enthusiastically about all the things they have done and in the end she also thanks her sister for asking her to join them. Kelley swings her arm around Erin, “It was really nice having you around. It has been way to long we went on a holiday together.”  


 

 

The girls say goodbye to Erin the next day and make their way into camp. They are the first ones to arrive, apart from the staff off course. Kelley finds out she is rooming with Ali, although she really likes Ali she would have preferred rooming with someone she didn’t know that well. But at the same time she was glad she is rooming with Ali. Glad her roommate for a month is someone she knows pretty good, someone she already is friends with.

 

Hope is going to arrive a couple days late, the team doesn’t know why. But they don’t really question it. After 2 days Kelley declares she loves January camp, it is all about fitness and she is crushing all records. The others just shake their head, apart from a hand full everyone hates January camp. But Kelley is the first one who loves the camp because of the fitness exercises.

They wonder how the defender can be this quick, even Alex cannot keep up with her. The trainers take notice of Kelley’s results.

The second evening of camp Syd and Pinoe run around shouting Hope is on TV. The team comes together in Ashlyn’s and Crystal’s Room. Apparently those two had already hung up a blanket and had stolen a beamer from the equipment room. Kelley is surprised by the team’s level of interest in Hope.

One of Hope’s worst fears became reality, the press found out.Kelley is also not thrilled news got out. Because this means in the next couple of days/ weeks the team will be bothered with questions. The amount of reports at the training fields will also increase.

It feels weird to be in that wheelchair again. But at the same time it feels safe ...It was the first time for the team to really see Hope in her wheelchair. They had seen her a few short times (Carli’s celebration after game). The stream isn't that good but good enough to for Kelley to see Hope is relaxed. She is truly smiling not her trademark media smile.

 

“Hope Solo, former USWNT number one goalkeeper, got injured last year in a game against Canada. Canadian forward Christine Sinclair collided with Hope Solo in an attempt to get the ball into the back of the net. The keeper hit the post and was from then on no longer able to move her legs. After being out of picture for almost a year Hope walked onto the pitch to congratulate her friend Carli Lloyd.” They first showed footage of the Canadian game and then they showed the images of Hope walking onto the pitch to congratulate Carli. For many it was still hard to see the first part, to see their keeper colliding with the post and afterwards lying in the ground, unable to get up. “Hope continued to surprise by standing a year after she got paralyzed back between the goalposts in a game against Canada. A game she was subbed out at half time, suffering from a swollen and black eye after a collision with a Canadian player. But ever since that game she hasn’t recorded any minutes. She  did travel with the team to Brazil but didn’t get play in the games. Hope has been training with these other athletes while the USWNT has its annually January camp in California.” That is al l the reporter tells about Hope, he continues his talk by telling about the other athletes. The camera switched back to the athletes, warming up.

 

But luckily the press only found out minutes before the start so they wouldn't make it in time to film the whole thing. The only journalists inside were journalists interested in the tournament and the other athletes, they were not here to see Hope Solo. The tournament is streamed on the internet but the cameraman does a good job not focusing too much on Hope. She rides a few warming up rounds with Dodson. He had been prepping her (and the other athletes) for the tournament these last two weeks. He gives her a few tips and tricks and wishes her the best. Although Hope originally joined the tournament, only to give the other athletes a bit of support and advice. Once one of the athletes had to drop out of the race due to an injury, the others persuaded Hope into participating,

 

Journalists are watching the stream like a hawk, ready to scribe down every detail. One noticed Hope used her hands to place her legs into the right position whereas a non-invalid person would just use their legs. Another one noticed the ease with which Hope controls the wheelchair.

 

Kelley’s phone rings, indicating a twitter notification… The first one is from Ali, the second from Carli and the third one is from Abby.

Kelley smiles at them and decided to write one of her own. Before the start of the race all the USWNT players with a twitter account tweeted some words of encouragement for Hope.

 

 

Kelley sits on the tip of the bed, the athletes are ready to start. Even though they don’t really know much about this kind of tournaments, they all can see the athletes are focused, all wanting to win.

Hope is in the fifth lane. Kelley smiles at the coincidence.  


If this had been a race with veterans pro athletes Hope wouldn’t stand a chance but with these rookies Hope actually had a chance of ending up in the top three.

The start signal is given and the race has begun. Hope’s start is mediocre, but she has the advantage of being stronger than the others. So with every yard they advance, Hope comes closer to the first one.

The team is cheering out loud for their keeper, seeing Hope is making a strong come back and gaining ground. They round the last corner and Hope is close to the first one. But she is running out of yards, the finish line comes too fast, it the line had been a couple yards further Hope would have won.

Hope is glad this kind of tournaments hasn’t got many spectators, because if there would have been more, more reports would have been here and the chance of her needing to do an interview would have been bigger. Now, Hope just shakes hands with her opponents and rides another round.

 

After the race Hope spent another day with the other athletes. Before the race they were very friendly but at the same time their competitiveness matches Alex's. They ask her about her story and Hope finds it surprisingly easy to tell them but maybe that is because they understand. Some went thought something similar and they all know how it is to be in a wheelchair. From the tournament she directly flies to the camp, taking her wheelchairs with her to California. The amount of press waiting for her was ridiculous. Hope rolls towards the entrance, completely ignoring the reports comments/ questions. Luckily US Soccer had informed the airport’s organization and they made sure Ms, Solo wasn’t bothered by journalists once inside the building.

 

Hope arrives late that day in camp, she goes straight to her room, knowing Dawn’s workout schedule she will need all the sleep she can get. She is in dying need of some fresh air after spending the entire day in airports and airplanes. So after dropping her stuff in her room Hope makes her way back out and walks to the training fields. Hope sits down against a goalpost. She doesn’t really think about that in the beginning, it isn’t till she starts to feel the metal pressing against her spine her mind flashes back to a little over a year ago. If she hadn’t been so zoned out she would have heard someone making their way to her. “Hi stranger” Hope, taken by surprise by this, bumps her head against the post while looking up. She rubs the back of her head and is about to say something but than a smile appears on her face. “Hi” Hope says slowly, still rubbing the back of her head.

“Didn’t mean to hurt you.” Kelley says while sitting down next to Hope. “It’s all right, I have had harder encounters with goal posts” Hope says, thinking back to what was going through her mind a few minutes earlier.

“How did you know I would be here?” Hope says after a moment of silence. “I didn’t, I just wanted to come watch the constellations, I have been waiting to do so since I arrived in camp but it was always too cloudy.” Hope looks up, she can clearly see the stars, although she isn’t entirely sure all the stars she is seeing are real, maybe the bang to her head was partially the reason she’s seeing so many stars. They are both lying on their back, looking at the stars, while catching up. It doesn’t take long though before Kelley snuggles a bit closer to her keeper.  


Dawn’s training is hard, but surprisingly Hope goes through it with a smile on her face. The third day Ashlyn just can’t hold it anymore and decides to ask “How can you keep smiling after all this?” A heavy breathing Ash asks “This is torture, my legs are burning.” Hope waits till her breathing evens a bit more out before answering. “Because the burning in my legs reminds me I can feel them again. It reminds me how lucky I am to be able to walk, run and play soccer again.” Ashlyn doesn’t know what to say so the women just stand there in silence, waiting for their turn to run again.

Two days into training, the entire team is out on the pitch, doing some sprints. Suddenly Hope drops onto the ground, at first they thought nothing special of it, everyone can trip. But then they saw her trying to get back up and failing, her legs seemed to no longer to be able to support her weight. Suddenly it became very quiet and everyone looks at Hope.

Hope knows they are all focused on her, she doesn’t need to look up for that, she can feel it. Hope silently curses for a moment, why couldn’t her legs just hold on, support her weight till at least training was over. Kelley sees, from the corner of her eye, Ali making her way to Hope. Kelley quickly stops her. Ali looks surprised at Kelley, wanting an explanation but Kelley just keeps focused on Hope “Come on” Kelley whispers “Come on, get up. Get up, get up, get up” Ali looks confused at Kelley before looking at Hope again.

 

Hope musters all her strength and manages to stand back up. The team lets out a sigh of relief. Carli sees her friend is still standing a bit shaky and look at the trainers, hoping they do something before Hope falls again. “Training is over” Jill calls out “For all of you. Take care of your body and I expect to see all of you at dinner.” With that she dismisses every one. Jill is smart enough to not only tell Hope to stop. She knows the keeper would be humiliated if she was the only one sent away.

While the others go to gather their stuff, Kelley sees Hope looking at the lines in front of her. _No, no, no, don’t do it. Don’t do it!_ The next moment Hope starts running again, she will finish the exercise. Her first steps are shaky, but after that she seems fine. This surprises everyone except Kelley and Ali. Ali missed it, since she was the only one focused on Kelley instead of on Hope.

Kelley makes sure to be at the line when Hope finishes her exercise. To the others it looks like Kelley is hugging Hope, but in reality she maneuvered herself so that she is carrying most of Hope’s weight. From the moment Kelley holds Hope, Hope knows that finishing her exercise was not a smart thing to do. Without Kelley she would probably have collapsed on her way to the bench, her legs are shaky and feel like they will give up one her once more. “Why did you do it?” Kelley asks while they are still too far away to be heard by the others. She knows why Hope did it, she just wants to hear Hope say it out loud so Hope can hear how ridiculous that sounds. If it had been any one else Hope would have remained silent but because it was Kelley she mumbles “Because I didn’t want them to think I’m weak.” “When are you going to see that no one thinks you are weak. We all think you are incredible strong… You came back from paralysis and you didn’t just come back from it, no you made it back to pro level…” Hope could hear the sincerity in Kelley’s voice and looks up, Kelley keeps going. By the time Kelley finishes her rant Hope is in awe. She had no idea. Kelley wonders how this smart, resilient woman has no idea how strong she really is. “What?” Kelley says when Hope just keeps looking at her. “When did you become this smart?” Hope asks with a smile, trying to lighten this conversation a bit. “You do know I went to Stanford.” Kelley retorts and softly pushes Hope away. Hope laughs and shakes her head, off course Kelley would brag about that now. Once Kelley is sure Hope will be all right on her own she keeps walking and has to fight the urge to look back, to make sure Hope will be able to stand/ walk on her own.

The others heard the Stanford comment but the conversation prior to that was to silent to understand, so they could only guess what was said. “What was that about?” Abby asks once Hope is nearby. “Oh you know, Kelley just being Kelley” Hope answers absently, too focused on getting her leg in front of the other and making it to the bench without falling.

The others make their way back inside while Hope sits down on the bench, giving her legs some rest before she starts the 300 yards walk to the building. She also hopes the others have left the locker room by the time she comes in. Hope looks at her legs, they are shaking. She than grabs a nearby water bottle and sprays some water on her legs, to cool them down.

Hope is not surprised to see Jill waiting for her in the recovery room. Although she had hoped to avoid this confrontation she knows they eventually will have to talk about it. What Hope didn’t expect was to find Kelley waiting for her in her room. She thought they had already talked it out on the pitch. “What are you doing here?” Hope asks surprised while she places her bag on the ground, near her bed. “Why didn’t you tell me?” Kelley asks “You know why.” Hope softly says This side of Hope always surprises Kelley, Hope sounded like a little, fragile girl. Not like the strong 5 foot 9 woman she is. “I get that you don’t want to tell the others but I’m your girlfriend, you can come with things like this to me. I’m not going to judge you or think less of you.” Hope sees the hurt look in Kelley’s eyes and makes a mental note to talk to Kelley in the future about stuff like this, Although she really hopes she doesn’t have to. She closes the distance between them and cups Kelley’s cheek with one hand. “Look I did not want to keep you in the dark but I just thought it was normal that my legs were more tired than they would have been two years ago. But I didn’t expect them to give up on me. If I had known it was that bad, I would have said something. ” Kelley nods, although it hurts that Hope didn’t told her, Kelley knows Hope will only say something when she is really hurt, or when she thinks something real bad might happen (like collapsing in the middle of an exercise).

“Take off your pants and lie down on bed” Kelley says. Hope looks at her in confusion “what?” “Take off your pants and lie down on bed” “Why?” “Because I’m going to give your legs a massage. You thought you were going to get lucky, weren’t you?” Kelley says with a smirk. Hope shakes her head but to be honest she did thought about that when Kelley told her to take off her pants and lie on the bed. Before she knows it Kelley has already pulled down her sweatpants and pushed her onto the bed, taking Hope completely by surprise. Hope doesn’t know where Kelley took it but out of nowhere a tube of massage oil appears. Hope has to refrain from moaning, it feels so good. She can feel the stress and exhaustion flowing out of her muscles. She could use one after every training. “Where did you learn this?” Hope asks while Kelley finishes the massage. “And don’t say Stanford” Hope adds without looking at Kelley, already knowing she was going to say that. “Remember I dropped you at Abby’s for her barbecue?” “Yes” Hope says, not really sure why Kelley is bringing that up.  


Carli enters the room a while later. She enters the room with her hands before her eyes. “Are you guys decent?” Hope grabs the pillow from behind her and throws it at Carli.  


 

At dinner, they learned they will have the morning off the next day. The team is glad but Hope is frustrated, knowing this is all because of her. Because her legs can’t keep up.

 

They are not really sure how it got out, since it was a closed practice but the next day it is all over the internet.

_Will Hope Solo ever be able to return to pro level?_

_Hope Solo collapses at training, her legs not able to carry her._

_Hope Solo not fit enough to keep up with the others._

Hope didn’t know that yet, she had woken up pretty early and didn’t check the internet Currently she is riding alongside the coast with her hand bicycle. She wanted to work out and be outside without tiring her legs before training.

Almost the entire team had read the articles about Hope. The wondered how they knew about Hope  falling on training. After all it had been a closed training, no visitors or spectators allowed. Training continues, The keepers where given some slack on the fitness exercises. Jill didn’t want to single out Hope so she decides it was best if all her keepers train a bit hard on fitness.

 

Than after some time the focus shifts a bit more to the soccer part. Kelley is still very nervous every time she has to play defender. But she tries to do all the things she learned from Heather, Hope, Ali and the trainers off course.  Every time it is just the defenders training Kelley is more nervous, no Hope standing behind her, no Hope guiding her, no Hope calming her down when Kelley’s nerves get too much…. She knows she will need to learn how to deal with this, Hope is not going to be behind her in goal every time she plays, So Kelley tries to play the best as she can.

 

Training hadn't been too good today, she had been training with the defenders today and Kelley felt like she was become worse instead of becoming better. Kelley walks into her room, she drops her bag and is about to face plant onto the bed when she notices a not on her bed. But since she was already falling she half face plants onto the bed. Once recovered from her awkward position she takes the note and reads it. A big smile appears on her face. She quickly takes a shower, puts on the dress, necklace and she chooses to wear the bracelet Hope had given her. Once satisfied with the result, she takes another look at the note, puts it in her purse and makes her way outside. She hopes she won’t come across others, otherwise it was going to be really hard explaining what she was going to do. She was lucky, she got outside without crossing a teammate. She did almost come across Pinoe and Ali but luckily those two were so busy talking, they didn’t even notice her.

 

Kelley follows Hope’s instructions, she rounds the last corner, finding Hope waiting for her. Hope was leaning against a rental car. She looks amazing. Kelley takes Hope's appearance in for a moment before continuing her way. Hope hears someone walking towards her and looks up, amazed by Kelley's appearance. Even back in Seattle they didn't went on many dates. Hope would like to change that although she knows that will be hard if they want to keep their relationship a secret. Hope opens the door for Kelley but instead of getting into the car Kelley kisses Hope. Hope lets go of the door and puts her arms around Kelley, pulling her closer. But Kelley puts a step back, she does give a surprised Hope a peck on the lips before getting into the car. Once Kelley is seated Hope makes sure it is safe to close the door and closes it. She quickly runs to the other side of the car and gets in. "Where are we going?" Kelley asks after a while. "You will see" Hope replies and focused on the road.

 

They had this rule that they don’t talk about soccer on their dates. So Kelley talks about this family reunion she has at the end of the month. Hope knows Kelley would love for her to come to the reunion but with her busy schedule back home and the fear of getting spotted on their way to Kelley’s family Hope just nods not wanting to stay it would be for the best if she stays at home. Hoping Kelley would drop that conversation for now. Kelley knows what Hope is thinking about. After all she had just made a huge detour to not walk passed the paparazzi, who are waiting outside, to get to Hope.   Hope parks the car, she takes her stuff and quickly makes her way around to car to open the door for Kelley. She than holds her arm for Kelley to take it. Hope talks about some prank Pinoe and Syd tried to pull on her but failed miserably, while leading Kelley to the restaurant. Once seated Kelley looks around and wonders how Hope always knows these little but super cozy restaurants.

It was nice, she was pretty sure the paparazzi wouldn’t find them in here. It was also nice to just be the two of them, no teammates around, no having to pretend. Just the two of them. Kelley can’t help but to stare at Hope from time to time. Hope catches her a few times staring but Kelley catches Hope staring at least as many times. Kelley receives a couple of text from other youngsters, asking if she wanted to join them. She wanted to switch off her phone but knew she couldn’t do that so she just replied them all saying she won’t join them but that she will join them the next time, hoping they stop interrupting her date with Hope.

 

 Hope pays for dinner and they go for a walk, Hope has once again brought others shoes (this time for the both of them). If it had been warmer, Kelley would have walked barefoot but the sand was way too cold in the middle of January to walk barefoot.

They first walk holding hands but after a while Kelley snuggles closer to be warmer and Hope swings her arm around Kelley. They walk in silence for a while and Hope is sure that no one would believe that combination (Kelley and silence). After a while Kelley sits down and pulls Hope down with her. Hope sits behind Kelley, protecting her from the cold wind. “I really missed this” Kelley says while looking at the sky, she looked for the squirrel constellation. “I missed this too” Hope says and pulls Kelley in a bit closer but they knew what to expect. They did have small moments together like when Hope arrived in camp or when Kelley gave Hope that massage and the one time it was just the two of them was after a game in Brazil but Kelley missed being able to kiss and stare her girlfriend whenever she wanted. After a while they make their way back to the car.

 

Kelley is sad that her time alone with Hope is coming to an end. Hope drops Kelley off at their building and drives away. She drives the car back to the garage and walks back. On her way to her room Hope drops by Kelley’s room, “Did you forget something?” Kelley asks once she closed the door. “Yes” Hope says and leans in. After kissing Kelley gently on the lips she says softly “I forget to give you a goodnight kiss” she than pulls something out of her purse “And I had to bring back the key I stole from your roommate.”


	29. January camp part 2

“Something wrong?” “Yeah, I can’t find my key.” Ali says while going through her purse for the third time. “It is probably just in your purse” “It is not in here, I checked, three times.” “You sure you took it with you?” “Yes, I’m 99.9 percent sure.” “Let me look, maybe you just overlooked it” Ali hands her purse over. She tries to go over the things she did before she left. She knows she had put the key on the desk after training. She tries to remember what she did prior to going out. She remembers getting ready for the evening and waiting for HAO to come and get her, no wait, HAO was waiting with the others downstairs. She then remembers Hope being in the room, wanting to go over something , she isn’t really  sure what they were talking about. They were talking while they got out of the room, Ali remembers looking at the desk but the key wasn’t there. At least that is what she thinks happened, maybe that last drink was one too much. Although her ability to walk straight had not been compromised, her memory might have been. A few scenarios flashed through her mind and she could not really say which one was the right one.

 

“You can always just knock on the door, I’m pretty sure Kelley is already in the room.” Ali feels stupid, rookies forget their keys, veterans like her don’t. Just before the Ali knocks, the door opens. Ali and HAO look surprised. “You guys were making so much noise ….”Kelley has already turned back around so the ride side strong side didn’t catch the last part of her sentence. “Goodnight.” “Night, see you tomorrow.” Once inside the room Ali first goes to check on her key. It is still lying on the desk. _Alright I did forget it_ … She looks at Kelley and wants to apologize for forgetting the key but her fellow defender is already back asleep.

  


 

 The following morning at breakfast, Hope could see a couple teammates had drunk one too much. “Kelley, where did you sneak off to yesterday?” Pinoe asks out of the blue.

“Nowhere special. Why?”

“Because I saw you wearing a dress, you looked stunning by the way and you left with a man. And you have this smile on your face …” Alex adds. This surprises Kelley, she had seen Pinoe in the hallway but she had not seen Alex outside, she just wondered how much Alex had seen. But given the fact Alex thought she left with a man Kelley is pretty sure their secret is still safe. “Wait a minute. A man? I thought you had a girlfriend.” HAO says out loud “Sssht, too loud.” Syd says “You sure it was a man?” HAO asks, a bit more silent. “Still too loud.” Syd mumbles. “No, I’m not. It was getting dark and I was standing far away. The other person was just a lot bigger than Kelley, broad shouldered … “ Alex says, trying to remember how the other person looked like, she suddenly wasn’t sure anymore it had been a man. Her memory was too foggy to really remember what she had seen so she decided to not go into any other details.

By now Syd has given up, they were not going to talk more silent so she grabs her stuff and moves to the more silent veteran table. “So basically you described Abby or even Hope” Cheney adds to the conversation. “Yeah I don’t think Sarah would like that. And Hope, I think it would be highly unlikely for Hope Solo to date someone like Kelley O’Hara.” Alex says not really realizing she was insulting Kelley. That last one stung, because Kelley knew it was kind of surreal that Hope would love someone like her. It was something she thought about, a lot she couldn’t shake the thought Hope would wake up one day and leave her for someone who is a bit more like Hope and a bit less like Kelley.

 

A few tables further Hope tries not to laugh. Carli looks questioning at her.

“What?” Hope asks silently

“Aren’t you jealous??”

“Why should I?”

“Because they saw your girlfriend leave with a man.”

“yeah, I’m not quite sure how much they had drank by then” Carli looks still not understanding at Hope. Hope has a really hard time refraining from laughing by now.

“I was the one that took her out, I took her to a little restaurant, afterwards we went to the beach, just the two of us enjoying the silence for a moment.”

 “Silence? With Kelley?” Carli asks in disbelieve, completely oblivious the fact Hope was going to take Kelley out on a date. _Out of everything I just said that is the only thing she picks out._

“yeah, than I dropped her off and drove the car back to the rental service a block or two away .”

“ooh” Carli chuckles, _How much did they drank if they mistook Hope for a man?_

If Pinoe had been a little less intimidated by the look the keeper was giving her right now she would have asked what they were whispering about. Somehow Tobin managed to draw all the attention to herself for a spilt of a second. Kelley quickly mouths a thank you. After that they seemed to have forgotten about Kelley’s night and plans are made on what they should do on their day off. They all decide to go to the beach.

 

The women quickly make their way to their rooms to change and grab all the stuff they need. Once back in their room Kelley remembers something. “Ali” the other defender looks up. “I would like to apologize for the other day.” Ali looks confused, not really sure what Kelley is talking about. “On the pitch, when I stopped you while you just wanted to help Hope.” “Ow, that. Yeah. It is all right” “No it is not, I should have given you an explanation. My father is a US navy pilot and as I child I accompanied him a lot of times so one time we were on his base and I kind of snuck away. I ended up in the medical center. I walked around and after a while I came across grown-ups struggling to make a puzzle the 8 year old version of me could have solved in 5 minutes. I don’t know if the staff noticed mem if they did they didn’t care. I sat already for a very long time next to this one marine, he had been staring at the same piece for over 5 minutes, and for me it was so clear where it should be. So I did what I thought was the right thing to do, I wanted to help the man by putting the piece in the right place but before I could do so another marine came up to me and stopped me. He was not some kind of doctor, he was a marine that was also recovering but he was already almost cleared for duty. He told me that it was already hard enough for that marine to know what he was trying to do was as simple as one plus one and he struggled as hard as like someone asked him to calculate the root square of 3428943. Although my intentions may have been good, I would end up hurting him more, making him more frustrated because it was something he was supposed to be able to do with his eyes closed and now he couldn’t even do it while the solution was right in front of his eyes. If even an 8 year old could do it, why couldn’t he? So when I saw you making your way to help Hope I stopped you because it is probably hard for Hope to do everything she is doing in training, even the easiest exercise feeling like you just ran a marathon and the beep test. But she still has this sense of pride, none of us have seen her sitting on the ground, not being able to get back up. Or sitting in her wheelchair trying to just move her feet for an inch and not succeeding because after only a quarter inch her feet felt too heavy and her muscles felt like mush. She gets the exercise done, she gets back up when she falls. If any of us had helped her then she might have felt weak and I don’t know if she would be able to face us again. Because she is a professional athlete, she is supposed to be able to run for miles, play games for at least 90 minutes. She is not supposed to be exhausted after a simple exercise and she is not supposed to need help to get back up after she fell because her legs decided a few sprints in the middle of training are too hard for her.” “I don’t really know if all this makes sense because I don’t really know how to voice what is going on in my mind but I hope it was somewhat clear.” Ali was shocked by the story Kelley just told her. She had no idea Kelley grew up in the military. Her playful behavior doesn’t really gives that away. _But maybe the idea I have of military families is the stereotypical version and not the real version._ She was also surprised Kelley brought it up. Her fellow defender seemed so focused on Hope at that time that Ali thought Kelley didn’t notice she even stopped her. Maybe she is wrong and is there nothing except friendship going on between the new defender and the veteran goalkeeper. “I think I get what you are trying to say and it is all right Kelley, it really is. Don’t sweat it.” Truth be told, Kelley didn’t even know she stopped Ali, she was just focused on Hope. But luckily Carli was there to point it out and tell her she might want to apologize to Ali.

 

Once finished, the two women make their way back down. When everyone is present they all get into the vans and drive to the beach. During the drive to the beach Ali keeps thinking back to what Kelley told her. Some play a pickup game of soccer. Others just sit or lie down and talk about all different kind of stuff. It isn’t that warm yet, but warm enough for some to go surfing.

Hope doesn’t really know how it started, all she knows is that she is now lying on a surfboard, paddling into the ocean. She also knows that this team is way too competitive at times. Once she is far enough out she turns around, sits on the board and waits for a moment. She tries to remember everything Kelley thought her.

The team was split up in two teams. a veteran team that was cheering for Hope and a younger team that was cheering for JJ. Hope shocked the veterans by going into the ocean, they all know the keeper’s fear of sharks. Little did they know the keeper did check the possibility of a shark being here in the ocean out. “Do you think we have a chance of winning this?” Abby asks, not wanting to lose again. Although Christie doesn’t know that much about surfing she does know Hope looked pretty confident and the way she paddled into the ocean seemed pretty real, meaning she didn’t look too clumsy in fact she looked like someone  who was back out there for the first time since long. Their body knows how to do it, their mind needs to dig the details of the movements out of their memory. “I think we have a pretty big chance of winning this.” Christie says confidently.  


Meanwhile in the younger team, everyone except two were pretty confident they were going to win. They believe that although neither can surf JJ has a better balance and therefore will be able to stand longer on the surfboard. “We are so going to lose this one.” “I know, it’s not like they deserve the win.” “yeah, but are you going to tell everyone Hope …” Tobin doesn’t finish her sentence, not wanting any of her teammates to pick up on it. “No” The two look into the ocean. Although Kelley wants JJ to win, she also preys Hope’s legs hold up. Hope seemed to be doing fine the last trainings so Kelley hoped Hope would do great, but just a bit less great than JJ.

Hope looks at Kelley for a moment, she then remembers Kelley’s words. She looks behind her, after a while she spots a good wave coming in, she lies down and start paddling. On the right moment she jumps up, she has a lot more strength in her legs than a couple months ago so she jumps a bit too hard. She manages to stay upright though and rides the wave long enough to know JJ won’t do better. She makes her way to the shore, with a smile on her face, to watch JJ try to ride a wave with the rest of the team. She gets high fives from the veterans first, the youngsters look a bit sad. They know the chances of JJ doing it better than Hope are not that big. They did not expect the keeper to be this good.

 

Hope was right, JJ could not do better than her. The youngsters were a bit disappointed. They didn’t really look forward to having to carry all the stuff back to the cars. Hope walks by Kelley, who was trying to carry as much as possible “You do know it is less hard if you just take less and make the run twice.” “You so cheated, this wasn’t your first time on a surfboard.” Kelley half whispers while Hope partially takes off the wetsuit, leaving her upper body exposed, only covered by her sports bra. She sees the look in Kelley’s eyes change, Kelley barely manages to get the last words out “Do you want me to tell them about ...” Hope asks but before she can finish her sentence Kelley says while not looking up from Hope’s exposed abs “This is so not fair”. Hope smirks and jogs away. Kelley yells something but Hope is too far to understand it.

 

While Hope makes her way to her stuff she quickly pulls on a shirt, it is way too cold to walk around in just a sports bra and a wet wetsuit.

Meanwhile, Tobin and Carli had been watching the two. “I don’t understand the team hasn’t picked up on them already. They are so obvious!” “I know, I mean I get they don’t suspect anything in Kelley’s behavior but Hope. I caught her staring at Kelley multiple times. The look she had in her eyes at that time…” Carli shakes her head, she really doesn’t understand how the other veterans didn’t see it.

 

 

 

Kelley and Alex decide to put the bags on the surfboard and walk with it between the two of them to the cars. On their way they had to stop a few times to put things that had fallen off back onto the board. They were glad the cars were just parked around the corner. Kelley was talking to Alex so she didn’t notice Chrystal, who stopped in front of her. Kelley slammed right into her. “What the heck Chrystal?” Kelley says once she recovers from the collision. “The cars are gone”

Kelley looks up, _Oh no, they did not._ Indeed, the cars are gone. Alex, who was busy putting the things back on the board, had not noticed the disappearance of their vehicles yet. “Kelley it would be nice …” Alex says but doesn’t finish her sentence when she notices the cars are gone. “Did we take the wrong parking lot?” Kelley’s phone pings, signaling she had received a text message. She takes out her phone and unlocks it, only to look at a picture of Carli sitting all alone in the backseat, stretching out over the 3 seats. _Apparently they did_.

 

 

By the time the younger girls finally arrive, the veterans have already showered and are sitting in the bar, drinking a non-alcoholic aperitif. The rookies hurry into the shower and hurry back down, the once that didn’t went into the ocean stay in the bar and join the veterans.

After a few drinks everyone goes back to their rooms, they have to change rooms before dinner. Hope is not in a hurry, she stays in the room, while Carli moves out. She sits on her bed with her laptop on her lap. She had decided that she urgently needed to catch up on the stories people send her.   


In meantime Kelley is not so lucky, Ali stays in the room while she moves out. Luckily she had already packed everything and Ali helps getting her stuff into her new room. Kelley is curious to be rooming with Cheney she really likes the midfielder.                   

By the time her new roommate, Becky, walks into the room Hope has already read a few stories and replied to them. “Is that everything or do you need any help with you bags?” “Thanks, but I think I’ve got it covered.” Hope nods and diverts her attention back to her laptop. She has read enough stories for a moment and decides to check up on Jess.  


 

Kelley sits outside, enjoying the beautiful sunset, she just finished calling her sister. She heard someone walking towards her, first she thought it was Hope but then when the person came closer Kelley realizes it is not Hope. This person walks lighter than Hope walks. Hope walks with some kind of determination, it also seems like this person is wondering if she could ask Kelley something or not. Ali eventually sits down next to Kelley and for a moment they just watch the sunset. They then talk about the surf competition and how it was Hope’s and Carli’s idea to leave the rookies behind. Kelley thinks she has a pretty good idea as to what Ali wanted to ask her about so she says “You know you can ask me about it. If I didn’t want anyone to know I would not have talked about it.” Ali looks surprised, she didn’t think she gave it away but who knows. Maybe Kelley has had some super special military training that made her able to read everyone like an open book. That might also be why she seems to know so much about Hope. “This might not be my business but what happened to that soldier?” Kelley takes a deep breath before she talks about the IED that left him with a TBI. But fortunately his brain recovered and he is still an active member of the USMC.   


Training restarts. The coaches haven’t forgotten about Hope’s ‘accident’ from more than a week ago. But they cannot afford to not grow to not become better. They have to move further, the world cup is only coming closer. Their opponents are becoming stronger and better so they also have to move forward. So they push their players hard but keep close taps on all of them, particularly on Hope. Since Hope is rooming with Becky, Kelley cannot really come into the room after training to check up on her keeper. But she somehow always manages to catch Hope in a moment when she is alone. Kelley makes a lot of progress and Hope manages to not fall onto the ground because her legs are too exhausted while the others are around. Hope does realize her footwork needs a lot of improvement, she struggles the most with the little but precise movements.

 

 

 

A few days later. After training, Hope decides to go for a walk, escaping the buzz of excitement for the announcement of the allocations. Hope knew chances of her getting allocated were small. She had only played one game (not even the full 90) for the USWNT. She just hopes the Reign would sign her if US Soccer didn’t allocate her. But before she made it outside, she was called back by Dawn, wanting to go over today’s training.

An hour later, the players sit in one of the conference rooms, waiting for the allocations to be made public. Although most of them will remain with their club the staff did hint some players would go to a new team. Carli knows already she is going to Houston so she is looking out for Hope’s name. Hoping the US Soccer federation decided to allocate Hope to the Reign.

Hope is pleasant surprised to see her name with the Seattle Reign. She isn’t really concerned when she doesn’t see Kelley’s name with the Reign, she figures US Soccer didn’t allocate her since she didn’t play that many matches with the USWNT. But when she reads further and comes across Kelley’s name Hope’s enthusiasm quickly disappears.  


Kelley discovered it a few seconds before Hope, once she saw Hope’s name with the Reign she went looking for her name, she didn’t expect it to find hers with Sky Blue FC. She tries to recall who her future teammates will be. Hope stands up, Kelley tries to give her a look. Hoping Hope would stay so she calms down before she goes to the staff. But Hope is determined and didn’t catch it.

The others don’t really notice the look on their keeper’s face because they were all too shocked with something else, the trade between Syd and Abby. They didn’t expect the veteran player to be pulled off her home city based team, the WNYF.

Hope walks to Jill’s ‘office’ and knocks on the doorpost. Jill had expected this visit. “What do you think about the Reign.” “I was pleasant surprised. I know you worked hard to get me allocated, I really appreciate it.” Jill is a bit confused, If Hope was so positive about the Reign, why does she look like … “So if that is not the problem what is?” “It is not really a problem it is just something I think that can be better for the team.” Jill, curious to what Hope has to say, offers Hope her undivided attention. “It’s just, I think I can teach Kelley a lot. I … She has made a lot of progress and in order to give her a shot at a defending spot in the world cup squad I think she has the biggest chances if she could play some more games in front of me. I know we won’t be with our club for long before the World Cup but I really feel those few matches we would play together for the Reign could be really critical for her development.” Jill agreed with Hope. But this decision was out of her hands. She had used all her favors to get Hope a spot with the Reign. Christie, captain and a defender (for over a decade) of the team thought Kelley could learn a lot at her side. But that was not something Jill could tell Hope. “I noticed Kelley seems to be more at ease and playing better when you are playing behind her. But it is out of my hands now. Maybe it is … she is not always going to have you behind her in games.” The last part doesn’t really sounds convincing. Hope nods, she has been around long enough to know Jill probably hadn’t much to say in this decision. Although she didn’t meant she needed to be the keeper, who is standing behind Kelley at all times she just meant that right now Kelley would improve faster if she just sticks to one keeper. “Just wanted to let you know. She really is an amazing player (and person) and I think she can really help the team win this summer. So I want her to have a fair shot at a place on the World Cup roster.  And the best preparation possible.” Jill nods, Kelley has shown her she has a lot of talent and skill and that she is determined to become better and work harder than everyone else. Depending on Kelley’s improvement Jill would consider her for the left back spot on the roster. Hope thanked Jill again for believing in her and getting her a spot with the Reign.

 

Meanwhile Kelley quickly concludes that the upside to this is that she is closer to her family. But for her Hope is also family and she will be far away from Hope. She has to act happy, not wanting to let the others think Sky Blue is not a good team, not a team she wants to play for. Because to be honest she is glad she is guaranteed she will play professional next season. Kelley doesn’t really think she makes a chance to be on the World Cup roster. Tobin sees right through it, she has known the new Sky Blue FC player long enough to know that a thousand things are flashing through her mind and that she is working out all kind of scenarios.

 Pinoe tells them she is going to miss her teammates, she had already planned some jokes. She will also miss the rides Kelley gave her. “Kelley you think, now that you are not going to be in Seattle, that friend of yours will let me use his car?” Kelley laughs “I can ask but I don’t think that will happen.” “Bummer” Pinoe pouts “I’m really not getting anything out of this.” She then adds “well thank you, maybe I should request for a transfer than.” Hope says dead serious but Kelley can tell she is joking. Pinoe’s smile falters pretty quick.  “that i…is not wh….what I meant” she quickly tries to get out. Hope laughs and all of a sudden she thinks she is lucky to have at least someone like Megan on her team, someone who likes to joke but when necessary works hard. She also knows Pinoe pretty well so that is another upside. Someone who understands how it is to be a member of the USWNT and a member of a club team. “Well if your car is as nice as Kelley’s I might reconsider what I just said.” Pinoe says. Having the courage to say something like that back now that she realizes the keeper was just joking. Kelley laughs too now, _If only Pinoe knew who’s car that really is._ “I don’t know about that but I don’t think you have to worry about that, since I’m not going to give any rides.” “Aw come on Hope, not even me” Pinoe than turns to Christie “Do you want to trade Kelley for Hope, Hope really is a good keeper, she pulls off some pretty kickass saves. The only downside is that she doesn’t give her teammates a ride back home after practice.” The team laughs and the little banter between Pinoe and Hope. Syd and Kelley feel already like they are going to miss out on a lot of fun times. They know their new teammates might be fun but not as fun as Pinoe, there is no second Pinoe (Except Rachel maybe, but even she is different).

 

 

Later that night, Kelley plays monop deal with Alex and Tobin. Hope plays pool with Carli, Ali and Abby. After a while Abby joins Syd in some kind of game and Meghan takes her place. Hope talks with Meghan about her time in Sweden while they are waiting for their turn to play. Although they have played in different times and different cities they do seem to find quite a few things in common. They both know Stockholm pretty well and Hope gives Kling some of her favorite places she used to go to, not knowing if they are still in business or not.

 

Carli goes to bed pretty early. Hope calls it a night not much later. Kelley intercepts her on her way to her room. Since they cannot go to one of their rooms Kelley drags the keeper into the icing machine room. “What did you say to Jill.” Kelley hopes the keeper didn’t say more than she intended on saying. “I didn’t insult her or anything like that. I also didn’t tell about us. I just said I think you are an amazing player and that I could help you to get to your full potential as a left back before the start of the World Cup, because I want to have the best team in front of me and I think you belong in there. And I mean every worth of it, that was not your girlfriend talking back there, it was Hope Solo bitch goalkeeper for the USWNT talking. Although the girlfriend version of me shares the same opinion. And that version of me also wouldn’t mind seeing you play in front of me, you see you have a pretty nice ass to look at, and waking up next to you every morning.” Hope added that last part to make the conversation a bit less serious. Kelley smiles, Hope stating she is an amazing player really means a lot to her. “I knew there was a reason why you wanted to have me as a defender.” Kelley jokes and shakes her ass in front of Hope. She than turns back around so she is facing Hope once again. “Thanks for doing all this. I know it can get you in a lot of trouble and if they find out about us it could get us in even more trouble.” “I would do it for every player and person I believe in.  Off course I am willing to fight just a LOT harder for you.” Kelley quickly closes the space between them and hugs her keeper. “Don’t let this influence your performance. I’m sure Laura can work something out to get you back to Seattle.” Hope softly says, while holding Kelley close. Kelley nods, but knows that she is not going to be the one, who is most affected by it.  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to get another chapter out this week to make up for not updating last week.


	30. Chapter 30

Hope managed to get through the rest of camp without her legs failing on her. The coaches were satisfied with the level of Hope’s Improvement but they also saw Hope still has a long way to go. Hope’s movements are still not smooth and fast enough.

 

Kelley and Hope arrive back in Seattle, late in the afternoon. They first go grocery shopping. They know it is risky to both go. But for once they don’t care, hoping there would not to much press at the supermarket. Hope knows it is probably riskier to take Kelley grocery shopping, they might (and probably will) end up with a lot more than they were initially coming for. Once everything is put in the car Kelley drives the to Kate, then pick up Leo. They managed to do all that without being followed or spotted by any paparazzi. Hope unloads the car while Kelley goofs around with Leo. Kelley was going to help unloading but somehow Leo snatched away all her attention, leaving Hope alone to carry the bags inside.

Once everything (a lot more than they originally planned on buying) is inside Hope goes looking for her girlfriend. She finds her dog and her girlfriend outside, goofing around. Hope notices it had been a long time since she has seen Leo this active and happy. Hope smirks and joins her girlfriend and dog in their goofing around. After a while Leo gets tired and decides walk a few feet and watch his two humans goofing around, Hope decides at that exact moment she no longer wants to share Kelley. So she makes sure her dog is comfortable before carrying her girlfriend back inside the house.

 

Things heat up pretty quickly so Kelley is surprised when Hope pulls away. “Babe, if you want to finish what you started you might want to get some food in first.” Kelley grunts, knowing Hope is right, but apart from that she takes no action to stop, on the contrary, she closes the gab between them once again. A few seconds later Kelley’s stomach rumbles, Hope backs away and smiles, although she rather would have continued, she does not want Kelley passing out ….. again.

 

Kelley reluctantly lets go of Hope and hurries to the kitchen, she wants to be done with this as fast as possible so she can finish what Hope started. Hope laughs, knowing Kelley will probably end up eating way too much/ too fast and not be able to do much except for cuddling on the couch while watching some movie.

Hope sits at the table, cutting the vegetables while Kelley prepares the rest of dinner. At dinner Hope talks about some things the trainers told her, Kelley is unusual silent. She finishes her plate in a record tempo and waits impatiently until Hope has finishes her dinner. Hope has almost finished her plate when Kelley lets out a “Pfff” while gently tapping her belly, “I think I ate too much” Hope laughs but at the same time she feels frustrated so she puts the dishes away while Kelley recovers from eating too much. Once Hope is finished with the dishes she walks to her ‘suffering’ girlfriend, sticks out her hand and waits for Kelley to grab it. Hope leads them to the couch and grabs the remotes before sitting down. Kelley snuggles close to Hope. They settle on Kelley choosing the first movie and Hope choosing the second. Hope gets through the first movie by paying more attention at her hands, gently going through Kelley’s hair instead of on the movie.

Kelley is bummed her movie finished, because this means she will now have to watch the one Hope choose. Not far into the second movie Kelley lets her hands wander around Hope’s body. Not much later the movie is all forgotten.

 

The following morning Kelley wakes up and images of last night flashes through her mind. A smile and a blush appears on her face. Kelley traces imaginary lines her fingertips on Hope’s chest.

It is then that Kelley also realizes how much Hope’s body has changed since they met. Kelley still remembers seeing Hope’s body for the first time. They weren’t dating for long at that time and she look just so helpless, vulnerable and fragile.

Her legs, so thin because almost all the muscles in her legs had disappeared, are now once again strong. The bruises on her upper legs that always seemed come back (Kelley never asked but she has a pretty good idea where they came from), have also disappeared for real. Hope no longer looks vulnerable, she looks strong, confident although Kelley could also spot some signs of nervousness and uncertainty.

 

Kelley feels Hope waking up, this puts and end on her thinking and Kelley focuses back on reality, but instead of opening her eyes Hope swings both her arms around Kelley and holds her close. When Kelley realizes Hope is not going to get up, she gently pokes Hope’s sides. “Babe” “mmm” “Babe we should get out of bed” “We are not in bed” Hope mumbles. “You know what I mean …..” Kelley says with a blush on her cheeks. In response Hope holds Kelley even tighter and mumbles “Sleep some more” Kelley gives up the fight, she is close to Hope and she really could use some more sleep, why should she even get up ? Not that much later Leo decides they have slept enough.

 

The next couple of days Kelley makes sure they both take a bit of rest before continuing their training. Although Hope wants to push through, she wants to be fit enough to make the World Cup squad Kelley manages to slow Hope down a bit, knowing Hope’s and her body could use some rest before continuing training. Kelley would have preferred going on vacation but she knew they could not. With Hope still had a long way to become World Cup fit and her still a long way from being a defender Kelley figured it was best if they stayed in Seattle. Taking a few days off to get everything in order before spending once again almost all day on the pitch or at the gym. They do go on little walks with Leo, do some small workouts but most of the time just relax and enjoy. Kelley loves to have her Hope back, to be able to act like a couple again to not have to act like her childish self to be able to hug Hope (after some incredible safe she pulled off at training), … Kelley shows it by randomly kissing Hope. Hope also catches her staring a few times but Kelley doesn’t mind because she is head over heels in love with Hope Amelia Solo.

A few days later, they lie on the couch and Hope just grabbed the remote, wanting to pick a movie. ”It’s my turn to choose” Kelley says and quickly grabs the remote. ”No it’s not, you chose last time.” The keeper replies while trying to grab the remote. ”So did you.” Kelley replies while trying to keep the remote out of the keeper’s reach. ”Yeah but we didn’t really see that one remember, someone had a hard time keeping their hands to themselves.” ”What can I say, your body is just irresistible at some times.” Kelley says with a smirk. ”But you had your turn, now it is mine.” Kelley ads and starts one of her favourite movies. Hope pouts, after a while she decides to use Kelley’s tactics against her. But Kelley doesn’t buy it and traps Hope’s hands between her own. Hope’s plan isn’t stalled for long, Hope places kisses along Kelley’s jawbone. ”Babe, I’m trying to focus.” Kelley says and sits a bit further away from Hope. Hope grunts and hits her head against the cushions. Reality is that Kelley wasn’t focusing on the movie from the moment Hope’s fingers touched her skin. She just wanted to turn around and rip off Hope’s clothes. Kelley sheds a look at Hope. Seconds later she is sitting on Hope’s lap straddling her. Kelley lets her hands wander underneath Hope’s sweater and shirt while kissing her.

 

Hope is Seattle-Tacoma airport. While she is waiting she gets recognized by a few people. At first she doesn’t mind taking picture and signing some stuff. But when the only questions people ask her are about how it felt to be paralyzed Hope… _There is not much you can feel when you are paralyzed …_ But instead of just snapping at them she gently tells them she appreciate their encouragement but that she just is waiting for someone to arrive. They get the hint and back off. Hope is glad to spot a familiar blonde not long after that. After some brief ‘hello’s and how are you’s’ Hope takes over the heaviest bag and the two of them walk towards Hope’s car.

“How was your flight?” ”It was good although I used it mostly to catch up on some much needed sleep.” ”How old is your boy by now? 2?” ”almost 2, he is 1 year and 10 months old.” Mittsy answers, surprised the keeper remembered the age of Connor. Although Heather would have loved to hear all about January camp the keeper kept her busy with questions about what was going on in her life. Heather figured she will have more luck with Kelley. Kelley and Leo arrive back home from their walk at the same moment Hope and Heather arrive. Kelley is glad to see Mittsy again, although she doesn’t know the retired defender that well, they seem like best friends. Unlike Hope, Kelley does give Heather a hug and they walk inside talking about God knows what, leaving Hope behind to carry Heather’s stuff inside. Hope looks at the two before turning to Leo, who barks one time before making his way inside. Hope follows his path with her eyes till he’s out of sight. She then shakes her head and grabs the bags.

 

The two soccer players give the retired defender some time to unpack. In meantime the couple prepares dinner. Mittsy walks into the kitchen not that much later and chuckles at the sight in front of her. “What’s so funny?” Hope asks with a cocked eyebrow once she notices the blonde. “It’s just…… I didn’t expect Kelley to be cooking and you sitting at the table, cutting the vegetables.” Hope turns around and looks at Kelley. They have been doing this ever since Hope was still in her wheelchair, and thus not able to stand at the stove. In the beginning Kelley did everything herself but Hope felt already like Kelley was doing way to much for her so she asked Kelley for something to do. Although Kelley didn’t mind doing all the work on her own she did realize it would hurt Hope if she said she had everything under control. So Kelley had given Hope a knife and some vegetables to cut.

Hope then looks back at Heather and shrugs her shoulders. The retired defender grabs a knife and joins Hope in cutting the vegetables.

At dinner Heather asks about January camp, Kelley talks most of the time and Hope just listens, form time to time adding something to the conversation.

 

The next couple of days Kelley and Mittsy train on the Reign’s training fields, sometimes joined by Hope and Mac, who otherwise are training at the other side of the pitch. Sometimes Laura sits at the side, watching them train. Every time she sees Hope and Kelley play together she wishes there was something she could do to keep Kelley in Seattle. She has tried to pull some string and call in some favours. But they were all to no avail. Sky Blue is not waving/ trading a player like Kelley O’Hara. They have seen her play forward last season, they would be stupid to let her go.

Laura is glad Hope will be joining their squad. But she is sad to see Kelley go, knowing the combination of those two could be the missing piece they needed to win next season.

Hope has to pass on the next training she has to go to her check up. After her check up Hope hangs around at the Starbucks, waiting for a calm moment to talk to Kate. She comes back home to Kelley and Heather standing next to a lot of shopping bags. Apparently they also took the day off.

Later that night, when Hope and Kelley are lying in bed and Hope is listening to the stories Kelley tells about all the things she did with Heather today, Hope realises she is probably in for a lot of teasing and questions, since Kelley will be out the next evening, partying with Syd and Pinoe. Leaving Hope alone with Mittsy.

 

 

Heather once again says goodbye to the two of them and wishes them the best. She also gives Kelley her phone number so the new defender can call her whenever she has questions or if she just wants to catch up. Hope thanks Mittsy for helping them out. The retried defender smiles, “I loved it. Make sure you keep that body of yours fit because everyone’s time on that pitch is limited. Make sure to get the best of out it.” Hope nods, she isn’t able to do much mire since the blonde has already turned around and is walking towards security. Heather does stop a few feet away from the couple and turns back around. She looks at Hope “Don’t forget what we talked about yesterday.” Kelley looks questioning at Hope. But Hope is not planning on telling Kelley what that was about.

 

The roster for the two European friendlies comes out, Hope isn’t on it. This only raises more questions with the public (and some players). Although Kelley is not happy with it because she thinks Hope would progress more with the team she does understand Hope’s point of view and respects it.

 

While the team travels Europe Hope calls her friend Robin. She did not wanted to put her team mates to something similar like January camp.


	31. Back from Europe

The team flies back home, no one questions Kelley flying to Seattle anymore. She then shares a cab with Pinoe to the Reign training fields, where Hope had parked her car for Kelley to take. Kelley gave Pinoe a ride to Sera’s house before driving home.

Kelley makes her way rather silently (for Kelley O’Hara) into the house. She drops her bags in the hallway and goes looking for her girlfriend. She finds Hope, napping on the couch. Kelley shakes her head. She kicks out her shoes and takes off her jacket before joining her sleeping girlfriend on the couch. Hope wraps her arms around Kelley but apart from that little action she keeps sleeping. Kelley places a soft kiss on Hope’s cheek. She than listens to Hope’s slow but steady heartbeat, Kelley is asleep within seconds.

Hope starts to wake up a half an hour or so later and is surprised to feel someone snuggled into her. First she thinks Leo might have joined her for a nap but after quickly opening her eyes to check on that                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        a smile creeps onto her lips. She hadn’t expected Kelley till later today.  


She doesn’t know how long Kelley had been napping but she decides to wake Kelley up. She could stay a lot longer like this, with Kelley close to her. But knowing if she lets Kelley sleep there is no way Kelley will be able to sleep this night. (It is already 2200 in England)

 

“How was Europe?” Hope asks once she is sure Kelley is awake enough to answer the question. “Cold” Kelley says and (Hope didn’t think it was even possible) snuggles closer to Hope. Hope smirks. She had seen the pictures Kelley sent her (and the USWNT Instagram and twitter pictures). Hope holds Kelley close and listens to her mumbling something about Syd and husband Although Hope wasn’t sure how those two would fit into one sentence. She would asks this later, when Kelley was a bit more awake.

Hope hears the cuckoo clock and remembers she has somewhere to be. Luckily with Kelley already here she can take her car instead of calling a cab. “Stay here a bit longer. You are comfy.” Kelley says once she feels Hope trying to get up and while putting her weight on top of Hope to prevent her from standing up. “I would love to but I need to do an errant really quick.” Hope replies while gently putting Kelley next to her. Kelley pouts and cocks her eyebrow but only says “When will you be back?” “In two hours or so. Try to stay awake, otherwise you won’t be able to sleep tonight.” Kelley was already half asleep. “I’ll try but no promises.” Hope quickly kisses Kelley before grabbing her stuff and walking out of their house. She opens the door and goes to sit on the driver seat, only to bump her knees into the steering wheel. Kelley once again forgot to push the seat back so it was far enough for Hope to be able to enter the vehicle without bumping her knees.  


 

After a few minutes of almost fallen asleep Kelley stands up and decides to take a quick shower, it might help her staying awake. Once out of the cold (to not fall asleep) shower Kelley takes her phone and sits down on the couch, shortly after joined by Leo. Kelley wonders where Hope would be off to. She then wondered if maybe Hope had a late Valentine present. Kelley wonders if she should have bought something for Hope, but she did call her yesterday on Valentin’s day and Hope did not really hint she expected something. She absentmindedly pets him while going through her social media. She also chats with Erin for a while and sends a mail to her brother.

 

Hope comes back home to her girlfriend and cat fighting for the best spot in front of the fireplace. Hope chuckles and draws the attention of both Kelley and Sully. While her cat and girlfriend are watching Hope, Leo silently makes his way to the spot and lies down. Kelley only notices because Hope’s smile got bigger. “Thanks, I was just winning this battle.” Hope chuckles “You know you can always just push them aside or trick them with some food.” Kelley watches Captain Sully settling on top of the resting dog and pouts. She then quickly gets up and pushes the keeper into the couch and sits herself down on Hope’s lap. Hope, surprised by this all looks at Kelley. “It’s your fault those two took my favourite spot so you ….” Hope swings her arms around Kelley and places a kiss …

 

“So what were you telling earlier about Syd and husband?” Kelley gets excited, she takes out her phone and starts rambling. Hope can’t believe it, Syd the kid got married. Once Kelley is done rambling Hope takes out her phone and sends a congrats text to her teammate. “I can’t believe you didn’t read it on the internet. It really exploded on social media.” “I haven’t really checked the news or social media these days.” Hope says while reading Syd’s response.

“Do you want to join me and Leo on a short walk?” “Off course, I love those” They reminded Kelley to the times her Leo and Hope (Still in a wheelchair at first and later on crushes) went regularly on walks together, but that was more than 4 months ago. Kelley quickly changed into something Seattle appropriate and joins the other two that are already waiting for her outside. Hope doesn’t keep Leo on the leash but keeps a close eye on him. While they are walking down the path to the water Kelley realizes she is going to miss moments like this. In a little over a month she will be in New Jersey while Hope and Leo will be here, in Seattle. _Maybe I should take a dog. That would probably not be such a good idea, with me being away regularly.. But maybe I can take Leo with me, Hope is never going to let me take Leo. I can drop him at Christie’s when we are away…._

She than freaks out about moving to NJ, she hasn’t really been looking for a place to live and the mails from SBFC are still marked unwritten in her inbox. Hope could tell Kelley was deep in thought, Kelley didn’t react when two squirrels crossed their path. “What’s going on in that big brain of yours?” Hope asks while pulling Kelley closer. “Not much, just thinking about how much I love you.” “And you call that not much?” Hope asks, feigning hurt. Kelley, realizing what she just said, quickly turns towards Hope “That’s not what I meant I….” Hope lets go of Kelley and makes her way to Leo while saying in mock “Did you hear that Leo. Kelley’s love for me is not much.” Kelley hurries to Hope “Babe, that is not what I meant. I Love you soooooo much” Kelley says while stretching her arms as wide as possible. Hope looks at Kelley, Kelley’s arms aren’t that long but it is quite a funny sight to see Kelley trying. “Than we do have a problem” Hope says while opening her arms “Because I love you soooo much” Hope’s arms are a lot longer than Kelley’s. Kelley looked for other ways to tell Hope how much she really loves her. “I love you more than I love water with my cereals.” “Donuts before the game?” “I love you more.” “sleeping in.” “Depends, I love you more than sleeping in without you but I absolutely love to sleep in your arms.” “What about your love for squirrels? This was a hard one, or at least Kelley pretended it was but to be honest Kelley is so in love with Hope that if Hope would drop down to one knee at this moment Kelley would say ‘Yes’ without a doubt. She had been thinking about it after her last conversation with her sister and to be honest, Hope is really the person Kelley wants to grow old with, have children with. But first, Hope is the person she wants to be standing next to her July fifth. “I love you more” By now they are both smiling as an idiot and Hope bends down to kiss Kelley. Kelley making sure to lay all of her love in that kiss. They continue their way. Talking about a lot of stuff.

 

 

It starts raining on their way back. Kelley looks at Hope for a second. “The last one has to make dinner.” Kelley takes off. Hope follows but shortly after she realizes Leo isn’t following, knowing she would not be able to catch Kelley she stops running and turns back around. Her dog is slowly making his way to her.

Hope remembers when she just got him. He was just a pup. They spent hours outside. One time, when he was still a pup, it started raining and Hope ran back home, Leo couldn’t follow so Hope picked him up and carried him home.

This time Leo is too big and heavy for Hope to carry him while running. So she walks next to him. Kelley has long arrived by the time Hope and Leo finally walk onto the driveway. “I would like the Lasagne.” Kelley says while holding the door open for Leo and Hope. The 3 of them are in dying need of a shower. Hope takes Leo to the downstairs bathroom and makes sure he’s free of any dirt and mud before she lets him any further into the house. Hope than quickly makes her way upstairs and joins Kelley in the shower.

Although Kelley is exhausted she decides to prepare dinner. It was already too late for Hope to be able to finish her lasagne on time. Kelley prepares dinner while Hope gets the laundry done. Kelley is almost finished when two arms slip around her waist. “What are you making? It smells kind of delicious.” “Kind of?” “It smells really delicious” Hope places a kiss on Kelley’s neck. “That’s better. But since it took you two tries I’m not going to tell. You will have to find out.” Hope pouts and gives Kelley another kiss before she sets the table while Kelley adds the finishing touches on their dinner. “We could put everything back in its original place.” Kelley totally forgot. She hadn’t even noticed they left everything in places accessibly for Hope in a wheelchair, “ok, but you will need to do so, I don’t really know the real place of most of it.”

Kelley talks about the trip to Europe and Hope tells about her trainings with Haley and some other stuff she did in meantime. Kelley does the dishes while Hope puts everything back in its originally place.

They play some ping pong and since Hope won she gets to choose the movie. Although it is only 8.00 pm (3.00 am in the UK) Kelley struggles to stay awake. “Let’s go to bed.” “But it is only 8.00 and you took a nap, I’m pretty sure you’re not going to be able to sleep yet.” Hope knew she was not going to fall asleep for at least another hour but she could tell Kelley s. “I could use some extra sleep.” Kelley didn’t really have the energy to argue and she was really, really tired so she complied. “Piggy back ride?” Hope can’t really deny her that much when she is giver her than look so Hope turns around and lets Kelley jump on her back, Kelley brushes her teeth and takes off her clothes before she lets herself fall onto the bed and crawls under the covers. Hope chuckles and puts Kelley’s clothes, that are lying on the floor away, before joining Kelley in bed. Kelley immediately snuggles into Hope. “It’s cold, you are hot” Kelley simply states. Hope smirks “You know, that’s why most people wear PJ’s in the winter.” “I prefer cuddling.”  


After a few minutes Kelley has already fallen asleep, she is half on top of Hope so that does limit Hope’s movability. Hope tries to reach the book on her nightstand but she comes an inch or so short. She stretches a bit more, half an inch short. Before she gives it another try she realizes that even if she reaches the book she won’t be able to read it. With only one hand, to hold the book and flip the pages, and no light. Hope watches, for as much as she can, Kelley for a moment. She is sure if Kelley had been awake, she would have called her a freak or something like that. Hope, without realizing, softly trails her fingertips alongside Kelley’s side/ abs.

After a while Kelley slow heartbeat and the feeling of finally being able to hold her girlfriend again made Hope fall asleep.

 

The first time Kelley wakes up is around 1am (8 am British time) She grunts and snuggles back into Hope, hoping she would fast fall back asleep. The second time is only a half an hour later. By 7 am (Seattle time) she decides to stay awake. She lies on her side and watches Hope. Kelley still cannot believe a woman like Hope likes a woman like her.

 

“St.. …..ing” Hope mumbles into her pillow without opening her eyes. “What?” Hope turns her head a bit but her eyes remain closed “Stop watching me” Hope mumbles but Kelley understands (partially because she knew what Hope was going to say). Kelley is always amazed by Hope’s apparent ability to know when Kelley was looking at her without opening her eyes. “I’m not” Kelley says while trying to contain her laugh (She fails). Hope internally smiles. knowing she was doing exactly the same a couple hours ago. “Yes you are. I can feel it.” Luckily Kelley got accustomed to Hope’s early morning mumbling otherwise she would not have understood a thing of what Hope just said. Kelley just remains silent, waiting for Hope to open her eyes.

 

Hope opens her eyes and looks directly into Kelley’s eyes. “Yes you are.” Hope says slow and clear. Kelley just smiles. Something in Kelley’s eyes change, so does her smile. It becomes more devilish, while Hope’s smile quickly disappears. And before Hope can say ‘No, don’t you dare!’ … Kelley had already started her tickling assault. It wasn’t long before the roles are reversed and Hope has Kelley squirming underneath her.

“STOP” Kelley manages to get out Hope continues. “STOP,.;. HO…..HOPE… I …” Hope stops. Hope has Kelley pinned underneath her and her eyes wander over the defender’s body. Kelley noticed Hope got a bit distracted and used this opportunity to flip them. Hope clearly surprised, didn’t expect this. So she is too late to prevent Kelley from turning them over. Kelley bends down, kisses the keeper passionately. She then quickly jumps off the bed and hurries out of the keeper’s reach. Hope pushes her head a bit harder into the pillow and grunts before getting out of the bed.  


While Kelley finishes breakfast Hope finally gets to ask her if she would like to make a trip to NY. Kelley would love to go on a holiday with Hope but she was pretty sure they (Hope) would be recognized in NY. Seeing Kelley doesn’t really looks convinced Hope adds, “I was talking to Carli the other day and she invited us to come training with her and her coach.” Before Kelley can answer Hope adds ”And maybe you can meet up with some of the Sky Blue players/ staff. It would be easier to be there to handle all the paperwork.” Kelley is all of a sudden not so excited anymore to go to NY/NJ. Not because she is not looking forward to see her new teammates. But because it is another reminder that just in a couple weeks Hope and her will live almost 3000 miles apart from each other.

Kelley hadn’t really thought about that last part. To be honest she had refused to think about it… hoping it would all just be a really bad nightmare. Because thinking about Sky Blue FC also means thinking about living 2800 miles away from Hope and leaving the Reign behind. But it also means being a lot closer to her parents, sister and brother.

After breakfast Hope drives the two of them to the Reign training facilities and they do some light training exercises. Before they go home Kelley makes a small detour and drives to them to the Marine base. Surprising Hope with a dive in the pool Hope learned to dive.

 

The next morning Kelley wakes up to a cold and empty bed. She turns around to look at the alarm clock, 5 am. Kelley is a bit confused, she is used to Hope getting up early from time to time but now Hope didn’t really had a reason to be up so early. Kelley waits a few minutes to be sure Hope didn’t just got to the bathroom or so. Kelley puts on something warmer before making her way downstairs. She finds her girlfriend lying on the ground cuddling Leo.  


At first Kelley thinks those two are just sleeping and almost turned around to go back to bed but then she heard something that makes her turn back around very quick. Kelley quickly makes her way to her girlfriend. She puts her hand gently on the keeper’s shoulder. Hope reluctantly turned her head so she would be facing Kelley. Kelley isn’t really awake, otherwise she would have put two and two together, now she is just wondering what might have happened. She then looks at Leo, he is not really moving and he isn’t snoring. Another look at Hope makes Kelley realize what had happened.

Hope notices Kelley realised so she gets up and walk away. She comes back a while later and places her hand on Kelley’s shoulder. Hope carries the dog to the car and lays him on the backseat. she than makes her way back to Kelley “Go back to sleep babe, you need it.” Hope says Although Kelley wants to protest, she feels like Hope wants to this on her own so she hugs her girlfriend. “Be safe.” Not wanting to get a phone call from the hospital or police.

Hope than turns around, gets in her car and drives away. Kelley stands there watching the car driving away till long after it is out of side. She realizes she has no idea where Hope is taking Leo.

Kelley sits down on the couch, she does not really want to sleep. But somewhere between her thinking about her moments with Leo and waiting for Hope to come back she drifts asleep.

 

The plane took off a couple minutes ago and Hope is already leaning against Kelley. Kelley knows from the steady and slow breathes the keeper is asleep. Kelley is glad. She doesn’t really know how much sleep the keeper got last night but she does know it wasn’t much and the keeper can use all the sleep she gets before the trainings with Carli. It surprised Kelley Hope was that much affected by her dog’s death. She had always noticed this special connection between the two of them but she didn’t expect to find her girlfriend the way she did.

By the time they land and meet up with Carli Hope has pulled herself together. A stranger would say everything is all right with Hope but someone who really knows the keeper can see she is trying to hard to look ok.

Kelley calls shotgun and ignores the expression on the two veterans faces (especially Carli’s). On the way to Carli’s and Brian home Kelley and Carli talk about upcoming NWSL season while Hope looks outside.


	32. NJ / NY

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not really proud of this chapter. I changed the plot multiple times but can't seem to be able to wtite down the idea I had in my head. Next chapter is about the first few days in the Algarve and it will be better written than this one.

Hope swears every dog owner in a fifty mile radius is walking his or her dog somewhere on the route from the airport to Carli’s house. So she was happy that they finally arrived at Carli’s place and finally could go inside, away from the streets.

 

Carli gives Kelley a quick tour around the house. Hope, who had been numerous times to Carli’s place, carries Kelley’s and her luggage to their room in meantime. Kelley notices the sometimes lack of stuff on Carli’s part, she then remembers the midfielder got traded to the Dash so it will probably already be in Houston.

Kelley spots a dog’s leash near the front door. “I didn’t know you liked dogs. Let alone have one.” “Well I wasn’t that fond of dogs in the beginning. But when Hope asked to take Leo, I couldn’t say no. By the time Hope got better and I brought Leo back to her, Brian and I liked having a dog around so we adopted a rescue pet, a young German Shepard. He joins me on my morning runs and Brian uses him to retrieve his golf balls when Brian sends them by accident into the high grasses. Kelley chuckled, from the tone Carli was saying the last part Kelley guessed their dog had quite some running to do. “Is he here?” “Who?” “Your dog, is he here?” “No, Brian and him are on the way back. Why?” Kelley was silent for a moment “Leo died not so long ago and I feel like Hope took it pretty hard.” _That’s why she was so absent._ Carli thinks “I’ll call Brian to drop him at his parents place.”

Kelley goes looking for her girlfriend while Carli calls her boyfriend and puts away the dog stuff. Kelley finds Hope looking at some pictures, she makes her way closer to Hope and sees the pictures are old pictures of Carli, Hope and some other teammates. Kelley chuckles, it is weird to see Hope as a blond. “What’s so funny?” Hope asks while remembering the day that particular picture was taken. “Blonde you.” Since Hope is more focused on her memories than on what Kelley is saying, it takes her a few seconds to realize what Kelley had said. “You don’t like my natural hair color?” “You look much younger. But I kind of got used to the brunette version of you.” That was not really an answer to Hope’s question but before Hope can call Kelley out on that Kelley stands on the tip of her toes and whispers something in Hope’s ear. Hope turns around so she is facing Kelley “Oh yeah?” She asks challenging. Kelley nods. Hope smiles and leans in to kiss Kelley.

Carli had witnessed the moment between Hope and Kelley. It was still weird, but not in a bad way more like in a ‘still not used to’ way, to see Hope like this. But Carli is happy, it had been a long time since she had seen her friend so joyful and peaceful. She still can’t believe her friend fell for someone like Kelley but it seemed to work. Carli hadn’t spent that much time with them but the times she has been around them to see they really love each other. She also knows Hope well enough to know when Hope really is happy or when she just pretends and now, Hope really is happy.

Brian comes home not that much later. He had been looking forward to see the keeper again. The last time those two saw each other was a few months before the Hope’s accident. He was also looking forward to get to know the keeper’s girlfriend. He has to admit he was kind of surprised when he realized the Kelley Hope is dating is the same Kelley from Carli’s stories.

 

 

It had been a cozy evening. Dinner was great, Kelley didn’t expect Carli to be able to cook like this. She also didn’t know Carli could be that sassy at times. She did enjoy Carli and Brian talking about some funny stories with Hope or rather said funny stories of Hope. Kelley could tell they used to hang out quite a bit. Hope was totally relaxed and they talked and laughed a lot. Although Kelley had a hard time following from time to time, since she didn’t know the story, she didn’t mind. At those times she looked at Hope’s expression and had to smile.

 

“What are you smiling about?” Hope asks with a “Just thinking about today” In meantime Hope sits down on the bed and Kelley turns so she is facing her. “About Toms river...” Kelley starts laughing so hard, she cannot continue her sentences but it was enough for Hope to know what she was talking about. “Remember me to kill Carli and Brian first ting in the morning.” Kelley manages to slow down her laughing. She grabs Hope’s hand and says “Oh come on babe, it is not that bad. At least you didn’t pull the rope.” Kelley starts laughing again

Hope pouts and lies down next to Kelley, but deep down she also is laughing because it was a funny story. But for her it was also kind of an embarrassing story.

 

 

The following morning JJ is surprised to not only see Carli but also Kelley and Hope enter the training center. After the greeting JJ and Carli started training while Kelley and Hope met with James to talk about their training program.

Hope looks forward to see James again. She progressed a lot when he was her trainer for the Atlanta Beat. Carli has brought James in on the loop on Hope’s current condition and her way to where she is now. She also told James about Kelley, about her play and some of the things Hope told her about Kelley. James watched some tapes to analyze Kelley’s play. Although he didn’t have that much footage of her as a defender. Almost all of it was from Kelley as a forward but he learned a lot from those plays. More than enough to know what he could do to help her becoming better.

 

Not that much later all four women are training, Kelley still needing to adapt to James’ style of training. James keeps a close eye on the four ladies, he writes down some remarks and notes Hope has still trouble with the smaller and more precise movements.

 

In the beginning JJ thinks it was kind of weird from Carli to ask Hope and Kelley to come. But then she realized it kind of made sense. Hope, Carli’s friend, who came back from paralysis. And Kelley, like her, new on the team and switched to defense.

 

JJ and Hope are the first one to be finished. So the two sit down and drink some water while waiting for the other two to finish their exercises. JJ looks for a moment at the keeper, she really wants to talk to her but she also doesn’t really know what to say. ”How’s your training with James?” JJ looks at Hope in surprise. She didn’t expect the keeper to ask her a question. ”It’s great actually. Although I’m exhausted every day and barely get back to my bed.” Hope smiles that does sound like a typical after James Galanis wrkout day. ”But I’m really grateful for Carli to take me under her wing. I don’t know how I can ever repay …” JJ didn’t mean to say that last part out loud. ”Just keep working like you do now. Be the first in training and the last to leave, don’t be afraid to ask a teammate about something you are not certain about. But also trust yourself, trust your instincts and your knowledge. The biggest way to repay Carli is to play phenomenal, like does.”

The defender is overwhelmed by the keeper’s advice. So by the time the other two arrived she still hadn’t said something back to Hope. But the look Hope gave her told her no response needed.

 

Kelley wants to go for a drink but JJ is too exhausted and she still had to call her boyfriend. Last two times she fell asleep in mid conversation. ”Raincheck?” “Off course” Kelley turns to Hope, ”I’ll also need to take a raincheck.” Kelley looks confused but with JJ standing next to them she can’t ask where the keeper is going. Kelley turns to Carli and looks expectantly ”Yeah, just give me a moment to …” Carli looks around for a moment “I’ll be right back.”

Hope says goodbye and leaves, shortly after followed by the rookie.

Carli and Kelley go back to Carli’s house. Since it is just the two of them they decided to take that drink at Carli’s place. Kelley had send Hope a message but after a while without reply Kelley remembered Hope had left her phone at home this morning since the battery was already dead, she forgot to plug it in that night.

Hope arrives back at Carli’s place two hours later.

 

 

A few days later the four go out for a drink after training. JJ sits next to Carli, she has gotten to know the midfielder a bit better in these weeks she has been training here. JJ is a bit nervous, she hasn’t been around Hope much and does not really know what to talk about. So she sticks to asking Carli and Kelley some questions. The keeper does talk from time to time but it is never that personal, so that gives JJ not that much to work with next time. By the end of the evening she started to like the keeper. Hope was funnier than she expected her to be. She definitely wanted to get to know the keeper a bit better. Not only because that would improve the understanding between the two of them on the pitch but also because JJ also wants to know everyone on the team. She also notices that Hope never calls her JJ but sticks to Jules.

 

 

Carli had been watching her friend these last couple of practices and noticed the notable improvement in the footwork of the keeper. After watching Hope making another perfect shot Carli decided to ask the keeper about it.

“Who did you train with?” Carli asks while the four of them are taking a short water break. Hope looks questioning at Carli. ”Your footwork, it almost jealous of your first touchers.” Kelley also looks questioning at the keeper, as far as she knows her girlfriend only trained with Kopmeyer.

“With an old friend” ”Wait, I thought you only trained with Haley.” Carli looks quickly at JJ, but it seems the defender didn’t pick up on that. Hope didn’t want to keep it a secret, the reason why she didn’t say it because she figured if no one noticed, that meant she hadn’t made that big of an improvement and so no reason to tell the others Mia Hamm tried to teach her some stuff.

 

“Yeah, I trained with Kopmayer too but I also trained a couple days with Mia to work on my footwork.” Hope tried to play it off as nothing special. “Mia? As in Mia Hamm?” Kelley questioned surprised. Hope nodded “You trained with THE MIA HAMM (and didn’t tell me)?” Kelley asks in disbelieve, the last part she didn’t say out loud.

This also got JJ’s attention. “Yes, I trained with Mia Hamm. She once told me if I ever needed anything I should just call so when I realized my footwork could use a lot of improvement I called her asking if I could come down to train a few days.”

Carli chuckles, it is quite endearing to see Hope like this.  

 

Although JJ and Kelley wanted to know more about this there water pause is over. The four start working again. Kelley is first a bit unfocused, she cannot believe Hope kept that from her but once a football comes in her line of sight she quickly pushes those thoughts away and focuses on the ball.

 

 

 

“Next time, don’t keep those things from me.”

Hope nods, she is glad Kelley understands. She knew she had taken a risk not telling but she thought they would never found out. She thought her footwork was still bad but after getting a remark by Carli she realized she learned a lot from Mia’s trainings. She made a mental note to thank the retired forward once again. Hope swings her arm around Kelley and pulls her in closer. Seconds later they are both asleep.

 

 

After training with Carli, JJ and coach Galanis for a week Kelley and Hope say goodbye and travel North. If you ask JJ what those two are going to do, she would reply “Kelley for meeting up with her new club and Hope would be going back home”. The three of them didn’t feel good lying to the rookie but none wanted the risk a spot on the world cup roster for Hope and Kelley.

 

Kelley had informed the Sky Blue FC organization a couple days earlier she would be coming in to handle the paperwork and meet the staff and stuff like that.

 

After dropping Kelley off at Sky Blue training facilities Hope makes the surpassingly half an hour drive to NY. Walking around NY Hope confirms Kelley’s fear was ungrounded. In NY (almost) everyone is busy, going from A to B, minding their own business without paying a lot of attention to the others.

 

….

“You sure you cannot come?” “Yes, my girlfriend is looking forward to show me some of the spots she used to come to as a child.” “She can come too.” “Thanks, but maybe next time” The veteran defender nods and wants to say something but she is called away by her youngest daughter.

 

 

 

“How was it?” Hope asks while driving of the Sky Blue property. ”Great, much different from the Reign but ….” Hope listens while focusing on the road. Although she hasn’t played for the Reign herself, she has heard a lot of stories about it from Kelley, Hope does believe the Reign will be one of the best teams she will have played for.

 

 

Kelley is busy with talking about her day, she doesn’t noticed she where they are going to.

Suddenly Kelley stops talking. ”Where are we going? The hotel is on the other side of the city.” Kelley says after an abrupt moment of silence. ”I have a little surprise for you.” Hope says with a big smile on her face. ”Really?” Kelley asks, suddenly very excited.

Hope smiles, she really likes this about Kelley (getting this excited without knowing what her surprise is.)

A few seconds later Hope stands in front of a red light. She takes out a cloth and hands the blindfold to Kelley. ”What do you want me to do with it?” Kelley asks uncertainly. Hope rolls, sometimes she wonders how her girlfriend got into Stanford. ”To cover your eyes so you cannot see. That is kind of the purpose of a blindfold.” ”Yeah, I know what a blindfold is for, but why do I have to wear it?” ”Because I want to surprise you. Now quit stalling and put on the blindfold.”

Kelley does not like not being able to see what is happening around her. But she trust Hope 100% so she puts on the blindfold.

The car starts moving again. They take a turn left, Kelley notices, by the smell, they are passing a pizzeria. The chatter also has increased, or maybe that is because now she cannot see she focuses more on her other senses. Kelley hears a few people arguing about some bin. Hope keeps talking to ease Kelley’s nerves. Although the defender is excited Hope can tell she is also nervous, the sound of an old truck backfiring almost made Kelley jump. After a few bumps in the road they take a turn right and what Kelley believes to be a couple yards later they take a turn left. Kelley notices they passed a park, not only did it smell like trees, she also could hear little children play.

In the short period of time she has been wearing this dump blindfold Kelley has smelled a lot of different smells and noises. The majority was good, some smells she would rather not come across again.

 

 

The car slows down, first Kelley thinks they are standing for another red light but when the engine shuts off Kelley knows Hope has parked the car.

“Be right back, I come get you.” Kelley wanted to say ‘Don’t leave me alone.’ But she hears the door slam shut before she is able to, Hope is gone. It seems/ feels like an eternity has passed by the time the door on her side of the car opens. Kelley is relieved to hear Hope’s voice again/ feel the familiar touch again. Hope smiles at Kelley’s reaction. She leans into the car to be able to unbuckle Kelley’s seatbelt. She also gives Kelley a quick peck on the lips before helping her out of the car. ”You better not be murdering me here.” Kelley says with a smile on her face but Hope could hear the nerves in her voices. Hope laughs “I think I would have taken you to a more deserted place for that.” Kelley tries to slap Hope’s arm but misses the first two times.

 

Kelley feels the surface underneath her feet change. It becomes softer, like they are walking on grass or something similar. They go up a few steps and Kelley knows they were now inside some sort of building (no wind, echo of her footsteps) They go up a flight of steps (19 steps to be precise) The next flight of steps counts 21 steps. Which is kind of odd to be different from the first one.

 

 

Kelley’s hand trails alongside the wall. So when her hand doesn’t feel the wall anymore Kelley reaches a bit further and realizes she is standing in front of an open door.

Hope leads her further, away from the wall. She then suddenly doesn’t feel Hope’s hand anymore and turns around to try to grab her. But her turning around made a lot of noise so she didn’t hear Hope walking away.

 

Kelley than could hear two people softly talking not too far away from her. She pretty quickly recognized Hope’s voice, the other, she had no idea who that other voice belongs to. Kelley is pretty sure it belongs to a woman though. Kelley thinks about making her way to the two but she doesn’t know what is in front of her and she doesn’t want to fall or hit a wall. The sound of a pair of footsteps fades away and another comes closer

 

“Are you finally going to tell me where we are and what we are doing here?” ”Well, training with Carli or doing the paperwork weren’t the only reasons why I wanted to get you to NJ.” Hope takes off the blindfold and takes a step back.

Kelley blinks a few times to adjust her eyes to the bright light shining in her eyes. The view she is looking at really is phenomenal. Hope starts talking and it takes Kelley a while to process what Hope is saying. Once she has done so she squeals enthusiastically and almost takes off to discover the place. This place really is amazing, but what Kelley loves even more is the amount of work Hope has put in, finding this place and wanting to keep the surprise (Blindfold).

After the short tour Kelley stands back in the living room, in front of the window. Kelley is speechless.

 

A minute or so later someone knocks on the door, Hope goes to open the door.

“What do you think about it? ”It is great, this place is really amazing.” Kelley wonders if she is going to be able to afford a place like this. She was not really sure what she is going to make this year. (Since she is allocated by USSF, is she going to make more than last year? Is she going to the world cup? Does she wants to spent that extra money on a place like this or will she just try to find a cheaper place or even try the Sky Blue housing program.)

 

Hope knows what Kelley is thinking about. ”What did you say the price is again?” Hope asks to the woman next to her Kelley’s jaw almost reaches the floor when she hears the amount. ”No way, a place like this? I would have expected it to be twice as expensive” _Whatever flaws this place has, I take it._ ”Yes, when I told the owner about you she was honored and wanted to help out.”

 

Kelley turns to Hope ….. “Can we take it?” the look Kelley was giving her right now, Hope would do anything to make Kelley this happy/ excited again. ”Only if you let me pay half of it.” ”Why? You already have your place in Seattle and it is not really like you will spend a lot of time in here.”

Hope takes a step closer. ”It is not because I am not going to be here that much that I am not willing to pay part of the rent. You are going to be here a lot and you are my girlfriend so I wanna help out. And if we buy this place we can come here on a short holiday in off seasons or between games.”

The woman, the realtor and old friend of Hope’s, shakes her head while smiling. The story about the lady wasn’t entirely made up, she did cut a significant amount from the prize she asked in the beginning but Hope is already paying a big part of the new prize (but Kelley doesn’t know that) .And now she offered to pay half of the remaining amount.

Kelley knows it is pointless to try to convince Hope otherwise, so she agrees.

They sign the contract (after reading it very carefully). The woman congratulates them and wishes them all the best. Kelley cannot believe this place is hers and Hopes.

 

Hope goes back down to get their stuff from the car. Kelley is surprised when Hope arrives back with all of their stuff. ”Didn’t you book a hotel????” ”Not really, I figured you wanted to spend the only two nights we have here in NY in your new place.”

 

They both sit on the floor, Hope talking about all the things she has planned for the next day. Kelley than takes her laptop and calls her parents. They already knew, Hope called them earlier today(to make sure Kelley’s finances were in order to be able to buy a place like this.)  Kelley glares at Hope, who ‘throws her a kiss from the kitchen, where she is doing the dishes.

She picks up her laptop and gives her parents a tour of her new place.

 

They sleep that night on some air mattress Hope brought along.

The next morning Hope takes Kelley out for breakfast. Afterwards she shows Kelley some of her (and her dad’s) favorite places.

 

 

 

 

Their time in NY/NJ comes to an end. They pack their stuff, Kelley sheds one more look at her apartment and closes the door. Their neighbor, an old friendly lady offered to check the place from time to time till Kelley comes back.

 

It is already late by the time the plane lands. Kelley is just awake enough to follow Hope to the car. Once in the car, Kelley starts to doze off. So she didn’t notice Hope driving to Kate’s place, only realizing she didn’t have to pick Leo up anymore when she was about to get out of the car. Hope quickly drives away, hoping Kelley didn’t notice. Hope turns onto her driveway and shuts off the engine. Kelley is fast asleep by now. Hope takes a moment before unbuckling her seatbelt and bringing their bags inside. She than returns for Kelley. Hope opens the door and leans inside the car to unbuckle Kelley’s seatbelt. She closes the passenger’s door with her foot and repositions Kelley so it is easier to carry her. Hope carries Kelley to their bedroom and lays Kelley down on the bed, she takes off Kelley’s shoes.

_How is she still sleeping?_

Hope looks at sleeping Kelley for a moment before going back down. Hope sits with Sully in her lap and looks outside. It is a full moon so she has a pretty clear view.

Hope misses having Leo around her. It seemed like Sully understood because normally he would have enough of it after 5 minutes or so. But now, after almost half an hour, he is still lying on Hope’s lap.

 

 

 

 

Hope uses the next two days to take care of some things.

She also meets up with her accountant, who tells her with the money spent on her house, on Kelley’s place, on the 2 charities, on the house for homeless there is not much left. He tells her she should tweet or something like that about that house, so more people will donate. Hope declines, this (and Kelley) is the one thing Hope does not want the media to find out. She does not want others to think she only did so because of the good press it would give her. While in reality Hope did so because that was something she really believes in. She truly wants to help this people out.  She decides she will cut on some of her expenses, for starters no more she’s going to sell her car (Pinoe would recognize it anyways) and buy a cheaper and greener car. She will contact Nike, maybe they want to do another campaign with her. No more frequent Starbucks visits but just the regular coffee she makes at home. And last, Hope decides they will have to win the World Cup.

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not really proud of this chapter. I changed the plot multiple times but can't seem to be able to wtite down the idea I had in my head. Next chapter is about the first few days in the Algarve and it will be better written than this one.


	33. Algarve Cup part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait. Just a short chapter for tonight but tomorrow's update will be longer!

They have been in the Algarve for a couple days, Hope just finished taping up her fingers and is about to walk out of the room when the door opens.  
Hope looks up surprised, the only other person who has a key is training outside with the other defenders.  
“Hi” Cheney says, also a bit surprised Hope was in her room, she had hoped everyone would be in training.  
“I thought you would not arrive till tomorrow afternoon.” Hope says once the midfielder has walked into the room.  
“Yeah, I could grab an earlier flight.”  
“How was it?”  
“How was what?” Cheney asks confused.  
“Your flight. How was your flight?” Hope clarifies, a bit confused why Cheney didn’t get that she was asking about the flight from the US to Portugal.  
“All right I guess. I slept most of it.”  
Cheney sees Hope’s taped fingers and sport bag, “Do you have training now?”  
“Keeper training is this afternoon, but I wanted to get some training in on my own.”  
“Mind if I join?”  
“Not at all.”  
“Just give me a minute to grab my gear.”

  
Hope takes out her phone and notes she  is already running late.  
Cheney quickly drops all her luggage on her bed. In the process of searching her gear she accidentally bumps her purse off the bed.  
Hope picks the stuff (that had fallen out of the purse) up and puts it back inside the purse.  
She didn’t mean to look but she can’t help to notice the date on Cheney’s plane ticket.  
Cheney was supposed to come in late due to family duties but according to the ticket Hope just saw Cheney flew in just two days after them, meaning 2 days ago.  
_Why would she lie about needing to be in the States for her family. And what did she do in those 2 days she has been here?  
_ Hope places the purse back on the bed and sits on her bed while waiting for Cheney to finish grabbing her stuff.

 She keeps thinking about the ticket. Cheney isn’t one to lie. Hope thinks about  Cheney’s behavior in the couple months she has been back. She cannot really come up with something out of the ordinary, well except that one incident in Brazil. Hope decides to keep a close eye on her midfielder this tournament. the earlier she discovers the problem the earlier she can start to make it right because she will need the middy at her best this summer.

On their way to a small training field at the outer edge of the city Hope tells Cheney about the things that happened these last days in the Algarve. They walk onto the field, a field Cheney didn’t know existed, and change into their training gear. Hope is the first one to be ready. She looks around and is a bit disappointed when she notices it is empty. _Maybe she is late._ Cheney finishes putting on her cleats and they start warming up. They talk from time to time but nothing big, just some small talk.  
Once warming up is over Hope trains on her goal kicks. Cheney starts some dribbling following with some set pieces exercises. They finish the training session with some 1v1.

 

They walk back to the hotel. Hope is surprised Cheney doesn’t join the team for lunch, she claims she is too tired (jet lag) and is going to take a nap. This throws Hope a bit, because Cheney should not have been tired if she has been here for a couple days already. Hope doesn’t know what she has to make out of all this anymore.

 

After lunch, Hope and the other goalkeepers have training, first video training and later training on the pitch. Kelley, is informed Jill wants to talk to her. She is stressed, not knowing what Jill wants to talk about and fearing the worst. She uses the key Hope gave her and opens the door to Hope’s and Cheney’s room. She is surprised to see the midfielder asleep and no Hope. She than remembers her girlfriend is training with the other goalkeepers. She panics a bit, she should not have the key to the room. Kelley quickly gets out of the room and hopes Cheney didn’t spot her.

Kelley quickly walks out of the room and leans runs to the ocean. She tries to think what Hope would tell her.  
Once she has gathered enough courage Kelley makes her way to Jill’s ‘office’. She knocks and waits till the coach opens the door.  
_She is not going to send me back home, if she would do so she would do at the end of this tournament, not in the beginning._  
“Kelley, come in.” The coach says with a smile. This throws Kelley off her game. Here she is, fearing for her spot on the national team and Jill is standing in front of her, all smiles.  
Kelley follows her coach into the ‘office’ and sits down.  
….

Meanwhile on the training field, Hope and the other keepers are still adjusting to the new Goalkeeper trainer. Hope is a bit anxious, because Paul Rodgers knows her, he knows how she used to train. He knows her style, her weaknesses and her strengths. He knows when to push and when to back off but most importantly he knew her from before she got paralyzed. Hope’s thinking is stopped abruptly by Greame kicking a ball to her, Hope can only save herself from getting hit in the face by her fast reflexes.

_Focus Hope, the last thing you want is to be benched because you were not paying attention at training._  
Hope tries to abandon her thinking and focus on what the coach is telling her to do. It takes just one more shot for Hope to fully focus on training.

The defenders walk onto the pitch while the goalkeepers take a short water break. Hope notices something is different with Kelley so when the defenders walk by Hope stops Kelley.  
Once Hope had spotted her defender she had moved a bit aside, so they are standing a couple yards from the other keepers (or any other teammate that might be around)  
“Everything all right?” Hope asks while looking worried.  
Kelley remains silent, thinking how she should tell Hope.  
Hope gets more worried. “Kell, what’s wrong?”  
  
“Jill wants me to train with the defenders and the forwards ….” Kelley trails off, still not sure if this is a positive thing or not.  
At first Hope isn’t really sure what to think of it. She is a bit mad at their coach for confusing the defender/ forward. But then she decides to make it a positive thing.  
  
Kelley once again is looking at her feet, Hope cringes. Every time Kelley isn’t certain about something or thinks less about herself she looks down at herself. This is something Hope is working on to get her not to do it anymore but Hope isn’t sure how to do so.  
“Hey” Hope says softly while cupping Kelley’s cheek with her gloved hand.  
“Kell, this is not a bad thing you know.”  
Kelley finally looks Hope in the eye and Hope smiles.  
“It’s not?” Kelley asks softly.  
“No it is not, it means Jill thinks you are an excellent forward and defender.”  
Hope let Kelley go, suddenly aware of the dozen pair off eyes staring at them.  
“It means she has confidence in the forward and defender Kelley O’Hara. Not many people cans ay they train with the USWNT and even less can say they train with the USWNT forwards and defenders.” Hope says  
The smile on Kelley’s lips slowly returns.  
“Now go out there and  get through your training with the defenders so you can cool down with the forwards’ training afterwards.”  
Off course Hope would joke about the forwards’ training. Kelley runs towards her fellow defenders while Hope rejoins the keepers.

“What was that about?” Ashlyn asks curiously.  
“You know, Kelley just needing some reassurance” Hope says, _and that’s not even a lie._  
Before Ashlyn can asks any more questions their trainer calls them back onto the pitch.  
The rest of training Hope’s focus is laser sharp. She impresses not only the coaches but also herself.

After training Hope makes her way to the beach, hoping she has some alone time to clear her mind from all the recent events. She hasn’t been sitting there long before she hears someone coming from behind.  
A ball rolls next to her and Hope catches it.  
”You didn’t show up today.”  
”I did but once I saw you weren’t alone I turned around …”  
Hope keeps forgetting.  
“Sorry, I keep forgetting…” Hope trails off, knowing she actually doesn’t need to give an explanation ,she understands.  
The other woman just nods, they talk for a while. Catching up on each other lives.

Hope plays with the ball in her hands. Apart from the sound of the waves crashing into the rocks it is silent.  
”How long are you staying?” Hope asks after a while, curious as to they might be able to train together before she leaves again.  
”I don’t know yet, I might stick around to watch some of your games….” She says like it is the worst thing she ever she had to do.  
Hope throws the ball at the girl next to her, who easily catches it.  
“Jerk! Shouldn’t you be in Cyprus?”  
“Nope, they didn’t need me.”  
Hope laughs “Yeah, I’m sure about that. Did you at least check your mail?”  
Hope waits for a response but there is none so she turns around and sees the woman smiling.  
Hope shakes her head and laughs, “Seriously? You are going to regret that one day.”  
  
  
“You really should come back to Seattle.” Hope says, suddenly dead serious.  
The woman next to her looks at the ball for a moment, she then looks at the horizon before replying “I know, it’s just  … I don’t know, I’ll let you know when I’m around.”  
With that the woman stands up and leaves.  
Hope, by now, not surprised by this shouts “Don’t be a stranger!”  
The woman puts up her hand without looking back, signaling she received the message and that she won’t (be a stranger).

On her way to back to the hotel, Hope takes her phone to ask Kelley if she wants to meet, only to discover her lock screen picture has been replaced by a print screen taken of a note Luce had written her while they were having this conversation, without Hope noticing. Hope shakes her head, _I swear she must have been a thief in another life._

Hope walks into the hotel, already forgotten she was going to text Kelley.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait. Just a short chapter for tonight but tomorrow's update will be longer!


	34. Algarve Cup part 2

CHAPTER 34

First Whitney, then Pearcie. Hope saw her defenders one by one getting injured. By now she will be playing with a backline she only knows for 50 percent and there are still 4 days left before the first game.  That plus the fact she injured her fingers a couple days ago made her even more nervous for her first full game back.

“What are you thinking about?” Kelley asks while trying to massage the tension out of Hope’s shoulders and neck.  
“Just with Pearcie and Whitney out … I don’t really know the young players on my backline ….” Hope trails off not really sure how to explain what she is thinking.  
“You do know me, JJ, Crystal and Kling …”  
“I know but I don’t really know them. The first time I really spoke to Jules was in NJ just a before we left for Portugal and Meghan, she has been around for a longer time but apart from the times we talked about Sweden I don’t really know her and more importantly I don’t know their playing style.”  
“You still have time. You can start by getting to know them off the pitch tomorrow on our day off.”

Hope thinks about it for a moment, about something she could do to get to know the younger players a bit better. She suddenly remembers something she (and a few others) used to do every time they were here. Hope takes off, only to come back after a couple yards. She quickly kisses Kelley and takes off once again while yelling “You are a genius”.

Abby, who was around the corner at that time, is almost run over by the keeper. She walks further and spots Kelley, still frozen in place and not really sure what just happened. “What was that about?” Abby asks.  
“Honestly? I have no idea.” Kelley replies absentmindedly.  
Abby shakes her head and continues her path.

 

Hope goes searching for the younger players, she is grateful for Kelley making her remember. Hope has already looked outside at the pool and the training area but no sign of the younger ones. She comes across Cheney, who is doing some light workouts outside.   
“Have you seen the rookies?”  
“Yeah, I saw them in Crystal’s room.”  
“Thanks.” Hope says and takes off. Once inside the hotel she does slow down, not wanting to make a scene nor wanting to be out of breath by the time she finally finds the youngsters.

It isn’t till she had walked twice up and down the hallway she realizes she has no idea in which room is Crystal’s. She has her phone already in he hands, ready to call Kelley to ask what room Crystal’s room is, not wanting to walk into all rooms to check where the rookies are, when Hope hears Jules’ laugh.

Hope knocks on the door before walking into the room (A few water bottles blocked the door from falling shut). The three rookies look up surprised to see the veteran keeper walking into ‘their’ room.  
Hope sits down on the bed, facing the three girls. She looks at them for a moment realizing she had no idea how she should handle this. Hope decides not to beat around the bush and asks “Do you guys have something planned for tomorrow?”  
The three look at each other for a moment. They hadn’t really planned anything … just hanging out at the beach and stuff like that.   
“Not really” JJ answers.  
“Great. Now you have!” Hope says excitingly, “Meet me tomorrow morning 8 am outside of the hotel, near the team vans.”  
The new, new kids could can only nod before Hope stands up and walks away. She still has to find 3 more people.

Hope finds Meghan in the lobby, talking to someone on the phone in Swedish. Hope understands bits and pieces, enough to get the bigger picture. She walks a few yards back so Meghan can finish her conversation in private. Once Kling finishes her conversation she makes her way to the keeper.  
“What’s up Solo?” she asks, clearly surprising Hope with this.  
“Do you have plans for tomorrow?”  
Meghan looks at her phone for a moment before answering “Yes”.  
Hope’s disappointment is evident, “Can you move them to another date?” she asks hopefully.  
Meghan is thorn, although she has no idea what the keeper has planned it seemed important. But on the other side, it had been so long and it would be even longer before another opportunity would come around.   
“I’ll try to reschedule.”  
Hope’s smile reappears “ Great! Meet me and the others tomorrow morning 8 am outside the hotel. I really hope you will be there!”   
Before Meghan can ask ‘What others?’ Hope is already gone.  
Meghan looks at Hope’s retreating figure, even when Hope is long gone she keeps staring to where the keeper rounded the corner. After a deep breath she finally unlocks the phone and dials one of the few numbers she knows by heart, knowing the person she is about to call won’t be happy with her cancelling their plans.

Hope goes looking for her fellow keeper, knowing she has an 89 percentage chance of finding Whitney near Ashlyn, since it is usually not that hard to find Ashlyn. It doesn’t take long before Hope walks to Whitney and Ashlyn.  
“Whit, can I talk to you for a sec?”  
The defender gets up slowly, making sure her legs are fine before she follows the keeper outside. Whitney walk back inside just a minute or two later.  
“What was that about?” Ashlyn asks curiously.  
“Not really sure” Whitney asks, not wanting to hurt her friend’s feelings.  
“Back to what we were talking about. When are you going to make the drive to my new place in Rochester?”  


 

On her way to the last person she had to ask Hope comes across Becky and Christie. For a moment she thinks about asking all the defenders to come along. She decides not to. If the youngsters want another trip, then Hope will ask them to come along.

 

“Will you finally tell me about your plan?”  
“Nope.” Hope says dead serious.  
“Kelley pouts, hoping to get Hope to talk.  
“But you’ll find out soon.”  
Kelley looks questioning at Hope.  
“Did you really think I would not invite you?”  
“well, I do think you know me pretty well already.” Kelley says with a smirk.  
“That might be true O’Hara, but as far as the others know, I know you as well as I know Morgan or Jules.”  
“Well than Solo, when and where?”  
“Tomorrow morning 0745, outside of the hotel near the team vans.” Hope says, knowing her defender will need the extra 15 minutes.

 

 

Hope is the first one outside the next morning. She is sitting on the hood of one of the cars rented by US Soccer, waiting for her teammates to arrive. Shortly after a very sleepy Kelley appears. Hope jumps off the hood and smiles.   
“Morning beautiful”  
A big smile appears on Kelley’s face.  
“Good morning babe”, Kelley wants to add something else but the change in Hope’s look makes her realize they are not the only ones outside. Moe, who had been waiting for someone else to show up first, walks out  not far behind Kelley.  
So instead she says “Whatever you planned Solo. It better be worth getting out of bed this early on our day off.” Kelley does make sure it is loud enough for Morgan to hear it.

Hope is glad to see Meghan appear, meaning she managed to propone her other appointment.  
“Glad you could make it” Hope says when it is just the two of them.  
“Me too, although you owe me a hike alongside the coast and a dinner at the beachside restaurant in Albufeira.”  
Hope looks questioning at first but then after realizing that were Meghan’s plans for today she says “You got it.”  
They all get into the car, Meghan called shotgun but since she was the shortest one, she was put on the last row with Crystal.   
Whitney, the biggest one (after Hope) sits on the passengers chair + she is also the oldest, after Hope off course. Kelley, JJ and Moe are sitting in the middle row.   
Once Hope drove onto the street Kelley declared that there would be no talk about anything soccer related until they got back to the hotel. They all agreed although some wondered what they should talk about with Hope. They didn’t know that much about the keeper and were also not sure they could ask about her private life.

First stop of the day is a little old coffee shop, the old man behind the counter recognizes the veteran keeper. He starts making her order without her having to say it. He tells her he missed her last year. Since he only speaks Portuguese and a few words English  Hope is not really sure he understood her explanation. She helps the other ones with their order and while they wait for him to finish their orders she looks around. _It still looks the same._ Not much later the 7 American player sit outside, enjoying the sun and their cup of coffee.    
“Uugh” Kelley lets out.  
“What? Is the coffee not good?”  
“No, it is the best. After tasting this one there is no way I will be able to enjoy the hotel’s coffee.”  
Hope laughs at this. The others agree, it is really one of the best coffee they have drunk in a long time.   
After they finished the coffee Hope thanks the owner, promises to come back and they get into the car. Off to the next destination. Once on the highway Hope joins the conversation, from time to time throwing in a comment. It has been a while but Hope recognizes her surroundings. She just hopes she will be able to drive them to the place she has in mind without making too many detours.

 

 

The ones that stay behind and knew about Hope taking the new defenders speculate as to where Hope is taking them. Ashlyn is a bit bummed Hope didn’t ask her to come along (she is not the only one that is bummed). She figured her fellow keeper and friend would not not ask her if she wanted to come.

 

  
Hope and the young defenders (and Moe as lone midfielder) returns just after dinner.  
They are all clearly enthusiastic. Ashlyn tries Whitney to get to know where they went. While Cheney goes for Moe, Ali for Crystal, Tobin for Kling, Carli for JJ and Syd and Pinoe go for Kelley. But all they learned was they would hear about it at tonight’s bonfire.  
Everyone is surprised. No one knew about a bonfire. Suddenly it is all hands on deck, every one prepares for this mysterious bonfire. Hope managed to  persuade the person in charge to allow them to make a bonfire. So once she dropped off the younger ones she quickly went to her room to take a shower and grab the stuff she had prepared. On her way out she waits for Tobin to join her. On their way to the beach Tobin tells about her day and Hope learns some interesting things. The get the bonfire started and not much later their teammates start showing up. Pinoe shows up with her guitar while Syd wanted to sneak in alcohol but no one wanted to get kicked out of the squad for a glass or two of alcohol so she decided against it.

There is a lot of talking, about today’s events, and even some singing. The other are a bit bummed Hope didn’t take them along. Hope did assure them she will take them along if there will be a next time.  They did get Hope wanting to be the only ‘old’ one, so she gets a chance to get to know the ‘new’ teammates. After a while Hope just looks around. Not really paying attention to any of the conversations that are happening around her. She looks at Kelley for a while, the smile on her face gets just a bit bigger. She then feels someone staring at her and knows she had been caught. Hope turns her head and looks at Carli shaking her head. Hope then refocuses on Alex, who was looking at her expectantly, like she was waiting for Hope to give her opinion. “Sorry, what did you say?”  
Alex takes a sip of her drink before repeating what she just said.

Tobin throws another log on the fire and spots two figures making their way towards them. She gets up, thinking they are fans and ready to ask them to leave. Only to recognize the two figures seconds later. Tobin hurries towards them and helps them out. Once the three woman reached the group and the girls saw what they were carrying they were very pleased to see their two coaches. The three pass around the blankets and the team thanks the two coaches. They even asks Jill and Dawn to stay but both woman decline, stating they have to take care of some things and want to go to bed ‘early’.  
There are not enough blankets for everyone so some girls share one. Hope, used to Seattle weather, had brought her warmest sweater so she was fine. Kelley was snuggled into one of the blankets the coaches brought. But she couldn’t manage to cover her entire body, so when the biggest part of the team went already back inside and she still was cold Kelley stands up.  
“Solo you are one lucky lady, since I’m still cold and the others already have a cuddle partner, I choose you to keep me warm.” Kelley sits down on Hope lap before the keeper can protest.   
“Try Carli, she also doesn’t have a cuddle partner and you might have more luck with her” Hope says while pretending to push Kelley off her lap.  
Kelley throws her arms around Hope to make sure she doesn’t fall onto the ground. Hope laughs, secures the blanket around Kelley. Her arms remain securely around Kelley and Kelley leans back into Hope, enjoying the moment even more than she was 5 minutes ago.

This really surprises their teammates that are still around. Hope wasn’t one to hug, certainly not one to cuddle. They didn’t expect the defender to wiggle her way into Hope’s personal space that easy. Alex thought about making a comment about it but the look on Kelley’s face made her not to. She seemed so happy and Alex decided she didn’t wanted to be the one that cut Kelley’s time in the arms of her (Kelley’s) crush (So Alex thought) short. Hope is pretty sure everyone is making a mental note to tease either her or Kelley with this over the ext couple of days.   
“You better enjoy this because there will be a lot of talking.” Hope whispers in Kelley’s ear.  
“I always enjoy the moments when I’m in your arms” Kelley whispers back.

For the remaining of the evening it is mainly Kelley who is talking with the others while Hope just holds her and listens. By the time they decide to head back a few girls have fallen asleep. Kelley is not yet asleep but Hope can tell she is close to falling asleep so she tickles her trying to wake her up.  
Kelley jumps off Hope’s lap.  
“All right, you can stop. I’m awake.”  
The ones that are awake enough carry their stuff back behind while making sure the ones that are half asleep get back to their room without incidents.  
  
 

The next day, Hope joins the defenders in their morning video session. Not only is their briefing also interesting for her, she can also give them some extra insight information since she has played the majority of their opponents numerous times. They also saw some footage of themselves, with their coach pointing out their strengths and weaknesses. That was also very helpful for Hope, it gave her a bit more insight on her defenders playing style.

Later that day there is a little scrimmage with the entire team.  
Tobin squeezed the water from her water bottle onto Kelley and takes off. Kelley chases Tobin in an attempt to retaliate but she only gets more water over her.  
Hope laughs at something Ashlyn said at the exact moment Kelley is about to pass them. Kelley, thinking Hope was laughing with her empties her water bottle on Hope. Hope stops laughing the moment she feels the water hitting her skin. The others hold their breath. Kelley laughs and tries to look innocent at the same time. A second later Hope snatches Ashlyn’s bottle and Kelley runs away. With two bottles Hope begins the pursuit. Once close enough she empties the first bottle on Kelley. She then holds Kelley close with one hand to empty the second one n her.  
“That’s cheating. You are not allowed to grab another bottle.” Kelley says while hugging Hope and trying to transfer as much water as possible.

Hope just laughs “Who’s rules?”  
For a moment they forget this is not one of their private trainings at home but a team training in Portugal. Luckily Carli is there to break their moment by emptying a Gatorade bucket full of ice cold water on top of them. Once the initial shock has passed Hope and Kelley look at each other, they run towards Carli, who tries to escape them but fails and is lifted into the air seconds later. Kelley holding Carli’s legs while Hope holds has her arms around Carli’s upper body.

Carli tries to get away because she has a pretty good idea where the duo is taking her. Hope and Kelley look at each other and the next moment Carli is send flying into one of the ice bath tubs standing at the ready at the side of the pitch, and just a few inches from where Hope and Kelley had taken Carli. Hope gives Kelley an high five before turning around, looking for their next victim. They spot their next victim. They know it is a risky move, they might end up having to sit in the ice bath longer then normally or have to run a few extra miles but they decide it is worth whatever punishment they get.

 

The team becomes all of a sudden very quiet. They pick up on what those two are planning on doing but before their victim can look up to see what is going on, she is lifted in the air and carried away. Before she can process that she is already thrown into the ice bath next to Carli’s bath.

Hope and Kelley quickly run towards the group so by the time that person comes back up, she has no idea who just dumped her into the ice bath. But by the time they make it back to the group Syd and Pinoe are dragging Alex towards the ice baths. Abby and Ashlyn are carrying Ali,… Hope and Kelley pick out their next victim and a couple minutes everyone ended up in one the ice baths. 


	35. Algarve Cup part 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry it took me so long to get this update out but will hopefully get some more chapters out this week. I have already written everything between the algarve cup and now,I only have to find inspiration (and time) to finish the algarve part.  
> Since it took me so long to write this chapter the storyline might come off a bit weird but I hope it is not too difficult to understand.

The team is currently seated in the conference room, waiting for Dawn to arrive so they can begin their fitness update meeting. Some of them couldn’t shake the thought that this is some kind of retaliation. “Did you really had to throw her in?” Abby asks.Hope shrugs, that is all she can do before their fitness coach walks into the room. Everyone prepares themselves mentally for the (probably) two hour of fitness updates.Dawn takes a moment to start up the computer.Once everything is set up she starts with something she always says at a fitness update meeting. She sees the confused look on most of the player’s faces when she  goes to the next slide. Dawn waits a moment before continuing with the explanation of the scavenger’s hunt. Once the teams are made public, the girls quickly go to their team and review the papers, most of them stop listening to what Dawn has to say. So Dawn quickly finishes what she had to say and watches the girls working together. Some run out immediately, others stay behind to make a plan before they run out. Hope points out which quests they can combine. After they have made up their game plane they quickly get out of the conference room and head tot the beach to collect shells. On their way back to the hotel Kelley jumps into the pool and Hope takes her phone.

Hope is more focused on Kelley than making sure she is recording the swim.  
So when Kelley finally reached the other side of the pool Hope looks at her phone and says “Oh my God, Kell, I don’t think I recorded it.”  
“NO!” Kelley shouts.  
“Yes I did.” Hope states while double checking.

In meantime Dawn joins Jill on the balcony. They watch the girls running around in group. “Now they know what they get back you do realize they might throw you in an ice bath more regular.” Dawn smiles. It surprised her but after the initial shock had passed, the ice bath was kind of refreshing. “Maybe next time you won’t be this lucky and end up, like all the others, in one of those ice baths.”Jill chuckles, it is quite unlucky the girls will throw her into an ice bath. But when she sees the look on her fitness coach’s face she realizes it will not be the girls she will have to fear. Kelley gets into a bathrobe and follows the rest of the team to the pitch, where they watch Pinoe ‘hitting’ the cross bar five times by simply standing underneath it and jumping up. While Pinoe explains her smart move to the camera the rest of the teams makes their way back to the hotel. They search for some beach balls but all they can find are regular soccer balls. Arod takes a marker and transforms the soccer balls into beach balls. After that the quickly reenact a scene of scandal. Once that is done they make their way to the kitchen to find some fish.

Dawn has actually a pretty good time watching all the videos.  
Once the coaching staff has seen all the videos the team goes back to the conference room and waits for Dawn to announce the winner. “Still think Kelley and I should not have thrown Dawn into the ice bath?” Hope asks with a smile while she walks passed Abby. Dawn, walks into the room at that moment, Tobin and Ali noticed her reaction. They are pretty sure now Dawn knows who threw her in she is going to get her revenge. Ali, Becky, HAO, Whitney and Lori are the winners. They claim because they are the only ones who followed the rules to the letter. They did every detail correctly, they did everything right and on time. “We stuck together” HAO adds.

Some of the team plan to go out for a drink, the winners get to choose the bar. Hope wasn’t planning on going but JJ and Kelley persuade her otherwise. Hope drags Carli on her way back to her room along.

“I’m not going out tonight.” Carli states while she is dragged along.  
“Come on Car, just tonight.” Hope says. They arrive at their room, “Fine, just this once” Carli reluctantly says. Hope smiles and quickly walks in the room.

Carli chats with Sam for a while, while waiting for Hope to finally reemerge from the bathroom. Once Hope comes out of the bathroom Carli gives her a quick once over “Are trying to pick someone up tonight?”  
Hope looks down, shrugs and says “Come on we are already running late.”  
“Not my fault” Carli mutters under her breath while they walk out of the room.”  
They have to wait too long for the elevator so they take the stares down. In meantime Carli states she will be going back to the hotel before 10.30pm.  
Hope doesn’t argue because she knows she is lucky to have been able to convince Carli to come along in the first place. Although she didn’t really give Carli room to say no.

“You clean up nice Hope!!” someone calls out while Hope is pretty sure it are Pinoe and Syd that cat call her.  
Kelley’s jaw almost drops onto the ground. Tobin grins when she sees Kelley’s reaction.  
“Try to keep it in your pants would you?” Tobin whispers into Kelley’s ear.  
Kelley blushes and looks away, hoping no other teammates were watching her.

The group walks outside,  Ali, Hao and Whitney up top. Tobin walks next to Kelley. Kelley spots Hope and Carli walking bit behind so she slows her pace a bit down.  
“This is not acceptable, you are not allowed to dress this hot and sexy when I am not even allowed to kiss you.”  
Kelley grunts and drags Tobin away from the duo. Hope chuckles, Carli and Tobin try not to.  
“I really don’t get how no one else figured out. You two are so obvious!” Carli states  
Hope glares at her friend “That might also be the reason” Carli says when she feels the keeper’s glare.

Once in the bar the group quickly splits up, some go to the pool table, others go to the dancefloor and others take it easy and sit down. Hope, Carli and some other veteran sit take it easy, they order a drink and talk about everything except soccer. Hope goes to the bar to get a refill. She also uses that opportunity to look around. She first watches Tobin and Kling at the pool table before turning her attention to the dancefloor. She is pretty sure the others aren’t watching her so she isn’t shy to openly stare at Kelley. She didn’t even notice someone took place next to her.

Kelley doesn’t feel this song so much so she slows down a bit and looks around. Syd, JJ and Ali are dancing no too far away from her. She then turns her gaze away from the dancefloor and spots Hope talking to a guy, a hot guy. She stares at them for a moment. She knows she should not be jealous because Hope is approached numerous times by men when she was around and although it took Hope sometimes some time to find out how to politely tell them  she wasn’t interested, she always makes sure Kelley knows how much she loves her and that the only person she wants to be with is Kelley. But it felt different this time. She doesn’t really has got a good look on Hope but she did on the guy, h seemed into Hope. He even got her to laugh and that is when Kelley couldn’t take it any longer. She cannot blame them because Hope does look stunning. She just wished she was able to go up to Hope like that and whoosh (author’s note: pretty sure ‘whoosh’ is not the right word to be used here but I could not come up with the right one And since I could not come up with someting better I decided to use it anyways.) her over and take Hope back to her hotel room. But she couldn’t, at least not yet. Maybe they will not have to hide anymore once the World Cup is over.

  
“Tired already?” Tobin asks when she sees her friend approaching.  
“Nope” Kelley says and takes over Tobin’s cue.  
Tobin looks at her friend, something is clearly bothering her friend. Tobin watches Kelley lining up for the shot. Kelley’s actions are more violent than normally. Kelley lines up for the next shot. Tobin looks around, trying to find Kelley’s source of anger. After scanning the room she has a pretty good idea what that source is, or better said who that source is.

“Can you take my turn? I’m going to get a refill.”  
Kelley is focused on the game so she doesn’t look up she just nods.  
“Do you want something?”  
“No thanks, I’m good”  
Tobin shakes her head, takes her still half full glass and makes her way to the bar.

 Tobin sits down on a barstool and waits for the barman to notice her. Once she has given him her order she then turns to the two next to her. "If your plan is to make Kelley jealous. It is working” The keeper looks up surprised, she hadn’t noticed the midfielder before. Tobin points towards the pool table. Hope turns her gaze and sees Kelley clearly frustrated about something.

 

Hope orders a drink and makes her way to Kelley.  
She puts the glass down in front of Kelley.  
“I heard you could use something to cool down”  
Kelley looks at the glass, filled with ice cubes and water, before looking up to her girlfriend.  
Hope had picked a pool cue in meantime and looks at Kling finishing her shot.  
With Kling around Kelley cannot really talk about it so she chooses to empty the glass of ice cold water instead.

Kelley is surprised to see Tobin talking to the guy Hope was talking to but is too ashamed to ask who he is, thinking it might be someone she is supposed to know.

Hope replaces Tobin in the game since the midfielder has decided to stay at the bar.

 They head back to the hotel pretty early since most of them have an early morning training session tomorrow.

The biggest part of the group hangs around for a while in the hotel’s lounge.  
Hope decides it is late enough and makes her way upstairs. She hasn’t gone far before Tobin passes by while saying “You are so screwed.”  
Hope is confused, she doesn’t really know what Tobin is talking about, she turns around to ask the midfielder but Tobin is already too far away. Hope shrugs her shoulders but before she can turn back around to continue her walk she is dragged away.  
It takes her a few seconds to realize what is going on.  
When that happens the other person stops moving and shows her a picture. Hope blinks and looks at the picture, it is one she posted herself a couple hours ago. She tries to see if something is wrong with it. She might look a bit too excited for just salmon or maybe it is the fact that you cannot really see Kelley but that would not be a reason for Kelley to drag her into …. Hope looks around _Where are we?_ To drag her into some maintenance room.  
“What’s wrong with the picture?” Hope eventually ask, not wanting to anger Kelley even more.  
“There is nothing wrong with the picture” Kelley answers and remains showing the picture to Hope. If there is nothing wrong with the picture why does she keeps showing it to me?  
Hope looks at Kelley..  
“Kelly? Really?” The defender eventually says.  
It takes a moment for Hope to realize what she meant with that.

_Uh oh._

“autocorrect?” Hope tries  
“You are telling me that after dating me for ..” Kelley did a quick head count and decided to settle for almost a year, “almost a year and your autocorrect still choses Kelly over Kelley?”

Hope doesn’t really know how to reply so she does the one thing she is sure will capture Kelley’s attention and distracts her from the main reason why they are in here anyways. She takes a step closer, kisses Kelley and keeps walking. Not long after that Hope is pinned between the wall and Hope. Soon Hope’s hands are all over Kelley’s body and Kelley’s mind doesn’t think about Kelly anymore.

 

Hope walks to her room with a smirk on her face.  
Kelley takes a moment to catch her breath, by the time she arrives in her room she realizes Hope tricked her once again in forgetting what they were talking about. But if it ended up with them making out, she didn’t mind. And it wasn’t that big of an issue to begin with. Kelley wondered why she got so mad about a Hope misspelling her name. She came to the conclusion that that wasn’t the only thing she was mad about it was just an accumulation of small things that bothered her about Hope.

  

Hope and the keepers come back from training. Ashlyn is telling some story about last night while they walk passed the treatment room. They planned on doing a little training session in the gym before lunch. Hope interrupts Ashlyn and tells them she forgot something but will join them in the gym. Ashlyn quirks an eyebrow, she is 99.9% sure the keeper didn’t forget something but who is she to say so? Hope wait for her two fellow keepers to have rounded the corner to turn around..

 “What happened?” Hope asks worriedly.

“It was stupid …”  
Hope places her hand on Kelley’s thigh, urging her to continue her story.  
“I was training with the forwards. We were playing a game against the defenders. Alex passed me a ball, I went for the open goal and all of the sudden Crystal came out of nowhere.”

Hope is angry, why would Crystal go into a tackle like that on training, against her own teammate, just three months before the World Cup. Kelley noticed the change in Hope’s ….

“Promise me you won’t go after her.”  
Hope doesn’t reply.  
“Hope! I’m serious. She already feels bad enough.” Kelley says with a raise voice.  
“All right” Hope reluctantly answers.  
“Promise me!”  
“I promise, I won’t go after Crystal.”

Kelley pulls Hope a bit closer so she can give her a kiss. She then slaps Hope’s ass “Now, get your ass out of here, Dawn is coming back soon and if I’m not mistaken you should be in the gym now.”  
Hope leans in once more to give Kelley a quick kiss before jogging out of the room to rejoin her fellow keepers. Dawn walks back into the room a minute or so later and is surprised to see Kelley smiling. When she left Kelley, like any player would be, was sad. That smile does falter a bit when dawn tells her she will not be able to play in the game against Norway.

After the short session in the gym Hope quickly takes a shower. She walks towards the dining room when she sees she still has a couple minutes left, she makes a u-turn and hopes the person she wants to talk to is still in her room.

 Lunch has already begun by the time Hope walks in, Kelley looks questioning at her, since the other keepers were on time.

Not that much later Crystal walks in, she clearly looks upset.  
Hope knows she is in trouble, the look on Kelley’s face does not predict anything good.

 After lunch Tobin helps Kelley to her room. Kelley had been too stubborn to walk around with crutches, stating everything was ok.

The midfielder drops the defender on her bed and goes to her own room to get her gear.

What Kelley didn’t know was that when Tobin left she let Hope into the room.  
Kelley lies down and her and thinks about what Hope might have done. She is midway in her thinking process when she spots Hope.

“No, I don’t want to talk to you right now.”  
“Kell…”  
“You promised1” Kelley let out rather loudly, cutting off the keeper.  
“I know I did. I promise, I would not go after her and I didn’t. I just told her that she  is very hard and everyone can see and appreciate the effort she is making to make the World Cup roster. But that she also cannot forget that when she is in camp she is training against teammates so she cannot go into tackles like that. Those not only endanger herself, the other player but also the team and the team’s chances of winning the world cup. I didn’t yell or shout at her, I told her she just needs to go a bit easier on her teammates but I also told her, if she keeps working like this there is no way Jill will keep her off the roster.”  
Hope was a bit angry might the right word to describe what she is feeling, maybe more disappointed that Kelley would jump to conclusion without knowing the facts.

It is not as bad as Kelley thought, but still, she promised to not go after Crystal and did it anyways.

 Hope goes looking for the rookie defender, Hope just hopes she is somewhere in the hotel. She knows the defenders have a couple hours off before having to go to some meeting.

She finds the Washington Spirit player outside, training. Hope watches her for a while and waits for the defender to have finished her exercise before  making her way to Crystal.

“I want to apologize for earlier. I realize now I might have come over a bit hard and may have hurt and that certainly was not my intention. ”  
The defender is surprised, she didn’t expect the keeper to come apologize to her. Because in her mind the keeper was right, it had been reckless of her to go in a tackle like that on one of her own teammates.  
“it’s all right Hope. You were tight, it was reckless from me to go in a tackle like that.”  
Hope didn’t really know what to say because in her mind  
“I am just trying to look out for you, you could have injured yourself really bad on a tackle like that.”  
Hope is already walking away but she stops and turns around to face Crystal “Just keep those killer tackles for at the World Cup.” The smile at the end of the sentence reassured Crystal that Hope didn’t have any bad feelings about this.

 Hope knows she not yet on the good side of the girlfriend side of Kelley but at least she was back on the good side of Kelley the defender.

Hope realizes they will have to talk about things like this before they go to Canada.  
Kelley isn’t one to hold a grudge but Hope knows Kelley will make sure she knows she messed up for a little longer.

 

 Hope is totally lost in the music. When she snaps out of it she realizes she isn’t helping her case. She tries getting away from him by saying she is going to the bar to cool down and is glad to see he doesn’t follow her. Hope sits down and almost immediately the bartender comes her way. She quickly thinks about what she can order.

“Here you go ma’am.” The bartender says and Hope looks up surprised, he puts down a glass filled with ice cubes and water in front of her.  
She looks questioning at him, he turns around to point to someone, only to realize that person is gone.  
She thanks him, knowing who bought her the drank.  
“I must say I had something else in mind when you said you needed a drink to cool down….” The guy she had been dancing with a couple moments earlier says while sitting down next to her. Hope looks at him, it takes a moment to realize what he is saying.  
She ignores him and looks at the table, hoping to find Kelley but she doesn’t spot her girlfriend.  
She takes the glass and empties it and hisses,  
_Colder than I expected. But I guess I deserved that.  
_ She makes quickly makes her way to the table. There she spots a few bills in Pinoe’s hand. She knows damn well what that means..  
_Oh no they did not…_  
Hope knew about her teammates habit of betting on other teammates going home with stranger, she had hoped her icy/ bitchy attitude would withhold them from makes bets on her.

Hope turns around and leaves the table again. What Hope didn’t know was that since she her come back, that icy/ bitchy attitude of hers didn’t show as much as it used to, surprising her long time teammates.

 

She looks around, the street is deserted, she then starts running in the direction of the hotel.

Not long after she spots a person, limping in the direction of their hotel.  
Hope sprints towards, “Kelley…”  
But the defender doesn’t listen and brushes passed Hope.  
Hope quickly runs so she once again stands in front of Kelley. This time she stops Kelley and holds her firm at the shoulders, making sure Kelley cannot walk away from her.  
“Kell please, I know you are angry with me but let me at least carry you to the hotel, you should not injure your ankle even more because you are too stubborn to accept help from me.”  
Kelley thought about it for a seconds in meantime Hope turned around and squads down so Kelley easily could jump onto her back.

Kelley jumps onto her girlfriends back. She feels Hope’s muscles move every time Hope takes a step. She smells Hope perfume… Kelley is getting lost in all that but then she remembers why they were here in the first place and she quickly forgets about the muscles and scent, and focuses on the way to the hotel, or so she tells herself.

 

True to her word Hope just carries Kelley to the hotel without trying to talk her. But instead of walking into the hotel Hope walks passed the entrance to the back.  
“Where are you going?” Kelley asks, not happy with Hope not keeping her promise (once again).  
“Can you please hear me out?” Hope says while lowering Kelley onto one of the pool chairs.  
Hope is relieved to not see Kelley take off. (Not that she had really been able to do so)

 

Kelley misses the first couple of sentences, she had been so mesmerized by Hope she forgot to listen to what Hope was saying.

“…I wanted the younger ones to see that I am not the Hope Solo they were told I was. And I needed the others to see that I’m not fragile. That I’m not going to fall onto the ground because my legs are not strong onto the ground. I no longer want to see that look in their eyes. I got carried away in the music and in trying to prove that I’m strong enough and am able to be social that I didn’t notice the guy behind me. It wasn’t till Syd told me to go for it I realized what was going on.”  
It sounds reasonable, Kelley knows it was just a dance but still.

Kelley remains silent for a seconds, she wants to reassure Hope that the others don’t think that way but the look on Hope’s face made her decide against it. Instead she says  
“It’s just, I wanted to be the one that was dancing with you.”  
Hope looks at Kelley and for a moment it looked like she was going to say something, instead  
Hope puts her and Kelley’s purse aside and picks Kelley up. Before Kelley could process what was going op Hope had already jumped into the pool.

 

Hope is still carrying Kelley when they both resurface.  
“What was that for?”  
“You said you wanted to dance with me. I know it is not the same but since you are not allowed to put your entire body weight on that ankle, I figured this is as close to dancing with me you will get tonight.”  
Hope let go of Kelley and stretches her arm  
“Can I have this dance? ”  
Kelley laughs. Sometimes she cannot believe her girlfriend. But she loves it, it was moments like this that made her fall in love with Hope all over again.

“Off course” Kelley says and accepts Hope’s hand.  
  
Hope holds Kelley and starts moving. “This is probably not the kind of dance you had in mind and there is no music…”  
Kelley cuts Hope off  by saying “It’s better than I had in mind.”  
Hope smiles.

 “You know why I didn’t dance that first night out?” Hope asks after a while  
Kelley shakes her head.  
“Because there was no way I would have been able to keep my hands off you. You just looked so hot and it is killing me that I cannot wake up next to you even though you are only a couple yards away, that I cannot kiss or touch you, hold your hand whenever I want.”  
  
Kelley wants to say she feels the same way but Hope starts humming some song, a song Kelley doesn’t know and Kelley decides it’s better to let it go (for now).

After a while Hope helps Kelley out of the pool and carries her to the pool chairs. She texts Tobin, asking if she could bring towels and some dry clothes

 

While they are waiting for Tobin to arrive, Hope spots someone making their way to the ocean. Tobin shows up not that much later, Hope and Kelley change into dry clothes.

Hope looks at the two and when she is sure the middy and her girlfriend will be able to make it to their rooms without injuring themselves she picks up her wet clothes, purse and towel and makes her way to the beach, following that person.

 

 “What was that about?”

“Just Hope making up to me”  
“Do I want to go into that pool again?”  
Kelley slaps Tobin’s arm “We just danced, that’s all”  
“Danced?” Tobin asks confused  
On the rest of their way to Kelley’s room Kelley explains Tobin about what went down tonight.

Tobin loved these stories, too bad she couldn’t tease Hope with this when there were others around. The others would never believe her if she told them about the dancing part.

Kelley takes her card of her purse and opens the door, she thanks Tobin for the clothes and for helping her back to her room. She didn’t have a clue where to Hope was, but it seemed important. Kelley takes her crutches, she had put the next to the door and walks into the room.

Press, who stayed in the hotel looks at her with a raised eyebrow. Nothing her friend is wearing other clothes and her hair is dripping wet.,  
“What happened to you?”  
“Just went for a swim.”  
“In the middle of the night?”  
“11 pm is not the middle of the night. And what happened to the Press I knew, she was not shy of an evening swim. If I remember correctly…” Kelley’s sentence was cut short by the pillow Christen threw at her.  
Although Kelley said it with a smile it was meant seriously. Kelley wondered what happened to the Christen Press she knew at Stanford. If Christen had been a bit more awake she would have picked up on that, but now it just went unnoticed.

  

Hope sits down next to her teammate and a few minutes go by without either girl saying a word.  
”Are you all right?”  
The midfielder wants to say ‘yes I’m fine’ but something in Hope’s tone makes her doubt, she knows Hope really means it, it is not some way to much asked casual sentence. The midfielder is sure she would have seen the sincerity in Hope’s eyes if it had been a bit less dark outside.  
”No, not really.”  
It was silent for a while, Cheney had to swallow a giant lump before she could continue.


	36. Game day

_Why did I want to grab the ball, it would have been so much easier to punch it away,_ Hope thinks while she is waiting for Cheney to take the corner kick, _Luckily Ali was there to make the safe._ Cheney kicks the ball back into play and Hope is once again 200% focused on the game play. What Hope doesn’t know is that that play was also the moment Jill knew her star keeper would be ready to play in the World Cup. Up until now a few of her assistant coaches doubted about Hope’s ability to play in games. Because even if she was physically able to make the comeback, they didn’t believe she would be mentally able to push herself passed it, meaning they believed the keeper would back out of challenges.

The first goal comes at the end of the first half off a fast counter attack by the Norwegians. Moe gave the number 21 too much room, given her the perfect opportunity to head the ball in the goal. Hope jumps and manages to get a little flicker on it but she cannot prevent the ball from crossing the goal line after bumping against the crossbar.  All the US players are bummed they are a goal behind, but no one is as disappointed as Hope.

 The US team tries to score the equalizer before half time but fails to do so. The whistle blows and the teams walk to the locker room. Hope is the last one to walk off the pitch. The goal keeper waited for her to talk some tactics before they arrive into the locker room.

In the locker room Kelley eyes try to find Hope’s to tell her she is doing fine, without actually having to do so. But the keeper is all business and is fully focused on what the coach is saying. Once Jill is done with her explanation Graeme pulls Hope aside.

The team makes their way out of the locker room and Ali quickly makes her way to the keeper. She knows the keeper long enough to know she is blaming herself for that goal, while in fact there was little she could have done to prevent the ball from going over the line. Hope would probably argue she is also responsible for the defense so she should have guided Moe better. 

By the time they walk back onto the pitch, Ali has the keeper laughing again and they are both ready for the next 45 minutes. The defender does make a mental note to work even harder to shut down her flank. Not that she doesn’t believes Hope is not able to do her job properly, she just want to do her own job perfectly (and help Hope preventing another ball rolling over their goal line).

 

In the 54th minute Hope comes off big with a safe on a point blank shot. The play was messy, too many USA players around the ball ended up with a big chance for Norway. Hope was in time to make the safe and Carli clears the rebound and sends it to midfield. Alex says quickly a ‘well done’ before running towards the others.  
  
Two minute later Carli brings the USWNT back into the game. 5 minutes late Carli scores again, this time off a PK, bringing the USWNT up by one goal. At the end of the second half Hope tries to get a foul on the Norwegian player for bumping into Johnston but since she has the ball in her hands the referee lets it go. After that play, neither team had any real chances. The keeper does note her friend looks more tired than she usually is after 90 minutes of play.

 

Glad they got away with a win the team heads into the bus. Some of the players stop to give away some signatures or to talk to some fans, others are too tired and walk into the bus, only waiving to the fans. Hope listened to music and was half asleep on the drive back to the hotel. She would never be fully asleep on a team bus trip, not wanting to be a victim of one of Pinoe’s, Syd’s or even Kelley’s pranks. She would not have been afraid of that before, but ever since she came back the girls seemed to ‘fear’ her less. She did not dislike that, it is just something she has got to get used to.

 

Hope is surprised to see Cheney sneak away after dinner, she thought that now she knows Cheney wouldn’t sneak away anymore. She also had so many questions but wasn’t sure Cheney would be able to answer them so she decided to look it up (on the internet). Apparently that’s not a good idea. Hope felt sick after going through only 2 pages. She does know that everything you read on the internet should … but still, there should be some kind of truth behind it.

Three minutes later she closes her laptop and walks back out of her room.  
She thinks to go to Carli but realizes Carli will probably be already asleep. She takes out her phone and sends Kelley a text.

Ten minutes later Kelley makes her way to the rocks, finding her girlfriend sitting on one of the rocks.  
“What are you doing all the way up here?” Kelley asks when she is within Hope’s hearing range.  
“I just wanted some time alone with you.” Hope says with a smile and turns around.  
Kelley sits down on her keeper’s lap “What is going in that head of yours? Is it the play from in the first half?”  
Hope thinks about saying yes but she doesn’t want to lie so she says “Not really, I’m already over that one. It is just something I have to wrap my mind around.”  
Kelley knows there is more about that story, but she also knows that the keeper will come and tell her once she is ready.  
  
“Did you managed to call you brother yesterday?”  
“Yes.” Kelley says excitingly, remembering the phone call with her brother.  
Hope knows it is not very nice of her to distract Kelley by bringing up her brother, but she really is interested in how he is doing.

Kelley starts telling one of the stories he told her. Hope watches her girlfriend, although it is already dark outside Hope loves to see how excited Kelley is. You can see it in the expression on her face, her arm gestures, everything. Hope smiles and refocuses on what Kelley is saying.

 

 

Hope wakes up and is surprised to feel someone pressed into her. She immediately opens her eyes, a smile forms onto her lips, but that smile quickly disappears when Hope remembers she is rooming with Cheney.  
As if Kelley could read her mind Kelley says “it is all right, Cheney went out, something about keeping a promise. She said she will be back just in time for lunch.”  
Hope pulls Kelley a bit closer.  
“What are you doing up so early on our morning off?”  
“I wanted to be with my girlfriend.” Kelley says and kisses Hopes shoulder, making her way towards Hope’s neck.

Hope enjoys the moment end melts into it. But she panics at the thought that a teammate might walk in on them.

“Babe, not here..” Hope says with clear concern in her voice. Kelley finds it adorable that Hope would be so worried about someone walking in on them. There are only 2 people that have the key to this room, one of them being Hope herself and the other is Cheney. Although if she would look for her key she would come up empty, Kelley stole it while Cheney was not paying attention. (How else could she have sneaked into the room?)  
  
“Are you sure?” Kelley asks and moves her hand lower.  
Hope wants to say yes but all that comes out is a gasp.  
“Because I’m sure I could ….” Kelley says, not finishing her sentence instead she continues to tease Hope.  
Hope thinks she has recovered enough to tell Kelley to stop but instead of saying that she lets out a moan. Kelley smirks, she knows she has Hope right where she wants her to be.  
“You are right, maybe we should not be doing this here.” Kelley says and retracts her hand takes it out of Hope’s shorts. Before she fully back away Hope lunges forward and presses her lips on Kelley’s and tugs on Kelley’s shirt to keep her close.

 

The duo is waiting for the elevator when Hope says “Why don’t we go into the city and eat breakfast at some small cafe?” Since they have the morning off the team is free to do whatever they want.  
Some woke up early anyways to get some training, others would not appear downstairs before lunch.

Kelley likes the idea “I would love to but I do think we will have to change clothes if we want to go into the town.”  
Hope agrees, they turn around and walk both to their respectively rooms.

“Where do you want to go?” Hope asks once they are outside.  
“I don’t know. Alex and I went out a few times but I do like the place where you took us more.”  
Hope smiles, after all these years she still hasn’t found anything that can top her favorite coffee place.  
  
Kelley is surprised to feel Hope grabbing her hand after a few minutes. She isn’t really sure if she should mention it, after all there might be journalists (or teammates) around and when this gets out it all might blow up. But at the same time she lunges for Hope’s touch, she feels whole when she is with Hope.

The duo reaches the small coffee shop, “Do you want to sit outside or …”  
Before the keeper can finish her sentence Kelley says “Tobin?”  
Three people look up surprised, Hope to look for the midfielder, Claire and Tobin, not expecting to be recognized.  
Tobin let out a breathe of relief when she noticed it was just Hope and Kelley.  
“Kelley” Tobin replies, she receives a kick from Claire and quickly adds “And Hope… What are you doing here?”  
“Getting breakfast” Kelley replies dryly.  
“yeah …” Tobin seemed to have forgotten how to speak.  
Claire places her hand on Tobin’s thigh “Pourquoi est-tu ci nerveuse? Tu sais qu’elles savent déjà.”  
“Je sais,  ….” Tobin once again is not able to say the sentence she had formed in her head.

“Asseyez-vous” The French defender says to the duo while Tobin tries to regain her composure . Claire also points to the two empty chairs at their table, hoping the duo would understand what she is saying. The three chuckle at the sight of the suddenly very nervous midfielder.

Hope holds one of the chairs back so Kelley can sit down. Once Kelley is seated she takes the other and sit down next to Kelley, facing Claire.  
“Have you guys already ordered.”  
“No not yet, we arrived 2 minutes ago.” Tobin says, seemingly re-found her ability to speak.  
Since this is not really a place where tourist normally show up, the menu is only in Portuguese. Lucky for the others Hope has been here numerous times and knows by heart what you can eat here. Once everyone has decide what they want to eat Hope goes inside to order, quickly followed by Tobin.

“Dude, relax” Hope tries in Tobin’s slang, hoping it will relax her.  
“It’s not you that I’m nervous for. It just made me realize that it could have been anyone that could have spotted us.”  
Hope quickly thinks,  
“It is the first time I have seen your significant other so I cannot really compare Claire to any of your ex’s (if there have been) But from what I have seen, you are pretty smitten. I can see she really loves you too. Don’t let her slip away because of your fear someone might find out. You don’t want to want the team to know? Fine, don’t tell them. If you don’t want the journalists to find out don’t kiss in front of them but don’t be afraid to sit with her outside, drinking a coffee or having dinner. Friends also do so and I know it might scare you a bit to be out here with her where there is a small possibility of getting recognized but in the end isn’t it worth the joy and love you bring Claire with this?”  
the keeper did feel a bit of a hypocrite. Kelley and her are hiding too, but for different reasons. If the team (or anyone else found out and it got public) US Soccer will likely kick one or even both of them of the team. That was not something either is willing to risk at this moment.

 

The two ladies walk back outside with their orders and find Kelley and Claire laughing.  
“Do we want to know what you are laughing about?”  
Hope doesn’t really make out what the answer was but apparently it was enough for Tobin to turn as red as a tomato. Claire adds something in French that is too fast for Hope to pick up.  
Hope puts the tray with her and Kelley’s breakfast on between them and sits down.  
For the remainder of breakfast the four of them chat and Hope enjoys every second of it. From time to time Claire had to ask what the meaning was of a certain word. One time even resulting in Tobin and Kelley trying to impersonate what they meant, resulting in Hope (and some other costumers) laughing, Kelley and Tobin falling onto the ground and Claire, still clueless about what they were trying to convey.

 

Not long after they finished breakfast Kelley’s alarm goes off, she has a meeting with Dawn.  
Claire and Tobin tell Hope she can stay but the keeper she will accompany Kelley (she wants to give those two some more time alone). The two couples say goodbye and Hope gives Tobin a look before walking to her girlfriend.

 

Hope drops Kelley at the hotel and goes for a walk, she not only wanted to think about last night’s game. But more importantly she finally wanted to process what Cheney told her a couple days ago and what that means.  
The more Hope thinks about it the more anger she becomes. A few rocks get thrown into the sea e, Hope even lets out a frustrated yell. After a while Hope sits down, she feels powerless. A whole while later Hope takes out her phone and sends a text. ‘Are you free?’  
She get an affirmative answers within minutes and jogs away.

 Hope didn’t expect this but it might not have been such a bad idea. First, they went on a run, the run lead them over a trail to a part of the cliffs Hope wasn’t too familiar with. Luckily it was not a hot day and the cool breeze made it perfect to go for a long run. Hope’s mind seemed to have found some peace and Hope loves that Luce is not a person of many words, so neither women feel obliged to keep the conversation going. While they run alongside the coast they are both sunken in their own thoughts.

By the time they reach the dock they are both out of breath. Hope sits down with her legs swinging over de side. Luce gets two bottles of water and sits down next to Hope. Hope is glad she can spent some time with someone who isn’t part of the USWNT but knows her very well. She even was given permission by Jill to miss team lunch so they still have some time for a short sailing trip.  
At lunch Kelley looks around and is surprised to not see Hope. She first sends a text, telling Hope she needs to hurry up if she doesn’t want to run the extra 5 laps. When Hope doesn’t show up at all and doesn’t answer her text Kelley is slightly concerned, but she then remembers the keeper knows the city better than anyone else.

  
Hope gets back just in time for the defenders meeting. She wasn’t obliged to go to that meeting but Hope believes she is part of the defense and therefore needed to be there. Kelley quickly looks at Hope, she seems to be fine. She doesn’t seemed tense or stressed, she actually looked a lot more relaxed and in peace then she had been the past couple of days she was with the team.  
“Forgot my phone” Hope whispers when she walks by Kelley, acknowledging she read Kelley’s text.  
The players listen to what the coaching staff has to say, from time to time Hope or some defender would add things she remembered from a previous play.

 

 Kelley starts training again, she doesn’t give 100 percent, Jill doesn’t want her to do.  
It feels great to be running again. The first training is a training with the forwards. It mainly consist out of them doing a lot of exercises to make their touches with the ball more precise. After training with the forwards Kelley has a half an hour break before the defender training starts. Jill told her she wasn’t obliged to attend both trainings, since she wasn’t feeling any discomfort in her ankle Kelley decided to attend the second training. The coaches did forbid the others from tackling Kelley and forbid Kelley from going into a tackle herself. It is actually a really good training session for Kelley, learning how to win the ball without tackling the other player.

 

The game against Switzerland ends in 3-0 win for the US. After the game Hope spots Luce hanging back but there are still too many fans for Hope to be able to really talk to her apart from the usual conversation she would have with a fan. She figures she will see Luce after her shower, but by the time Hope and the others walk out, there is no Luce to be seen, she seemed to have disappeared.

 

Luce is sitting on the bench not too far away from the hotel. Luce’s backpack is sitting next to her, Hope is surprised to see she is petting a puppy.  
“Where did you get this one?” Hope asks and takes over the dog.  
“Found him a while back, looked around for his mother or for any people this dog might belonged to but found no one. So I decided to keep him.”  
Hope smiles and pets the puppy. He reminds her a bit to when Leo was just a pup. Although Leo was no German Shepherd like this one but the way he reacts to her touches. It makes Hope miss her dog just a little bit more.

  
“So you are leaving?”  
“Yes I am.”  
“Do you already know where you are going?”  
“Probably up north, but who knows maybe I’ll go back, will see.”  
Hope picks up on how she says ‘I’ll go back’ instead of saying ‘I’m going back home’  but she knows better than to point it out.  
While Hope holds the pup Luce takes her backpack.  
“Come visit me in Seattle before the start of the world cup.”  
Luce looks at Hope, she can tell the keeper really means it but she isn’t one to plan ahead and Hope knows that.

  
“I’ll see where I end up.” Luce says and takes over the pup.  
“Don’t be a stranger!” shouts Hope at Luce, who is walking away.  
The keeper can hear her friend let out a chuckle and see her put up her hand (to say goodbye).  
Hope shakes her head and walks back inside. In comparison with Luce, Tobin is more a housewife instead of a nomad.  Thinking about it, ever since the middy is in a relationship with the French defender Tobin either is in Paris or in Portland, she isn’t that much of a nomad these days.

The keeper did wonder how her friend got here this fast, the train takes at least 4 hours and that is only when you are lucky enough to not have to wait for the layover in Faro.  
The game ended a bit over 3 hours ago so that certainly eliminates the train, the bus. Who knows, she probably hitchhiked. While walking to her room Hope thinks about the places Luce could be going.

 

 

Kelley is excited to get the start against Iceland although she is kind of bummed her family won’t be able to see the game. Kelley is surprised when Hope pulls her next to her for the starting eleven picture. Even more surprised to get the full 90. They didn’t score but they also didn’t get scored on. Jill asks her to come see her once back at the hotel. Kelley wonders why the coach keeps doing this. Why is she always the one that has to go see the coach?  
She really shouldn’t be nervous by now, it is almost a routine for her but Kelley cannot help it, her heartrate is as high as it was during the game.

“Kelley, come in”, the coach takes a step aside so Kelley can walk into the room.  
Kelley tries not to look around too much and sits down.  
“I want to talk with you about Hope.”  
Kelley’s eyes go wide, she manages to get out “what about Hope?”  
“I noticed you are one of the few that seem to really know Hope. That’s why I want to ask you how she is doing.”  
Kelley takes a few breathes, glad the coach didn’t found out about their secret.  
“I think the only person that can really answer that question is Hope. You should ask her. In my opinion, she is fine. She might want to have some more time with the young players on the team to get a bit more familiar with their play.”  
The coach nods, she certainly is planning on having a conversation with the keeper.  
“She has been a really big help with my transition to defense. Going from staying later at training to go over some plays I was struggling, to guiding me on the pitch during a game (or training).”

Jill had noticed the keeper taking the young defender under her wing. It was quite unorthodox to see a keeper training a defender but it proved pretty effective. Kelley had made the switch in a record tempo and Jill considers Kelley a good candidate for the right back position at the World Cup. The upside on having Kelley on her squad is that Jill can use her as a forward if her forwards keep playing like they have been playing lately.

The two end up talking about some things other than soccer and Kelley got (for the first time) to know the ‘not coach’ part of Jill. After all Jill is also a normal person, who also has a life outside soccer.

The last couple of days fly by. The game against France is different.  
Not because it is the final or because France is their first real opponent but because the French players play for something bigger. They play for their fellow athletes who died in an helicopter crash in South-America. Although the French team have this extra drive, it is the US that scores first. JJ scores in the 7th minute, she heads a ball passed Bouhaddi. Fourteen minutes later the French are looking for the equalizer, Abily with the shot from distance but Hope is there to catch the ball. In the fortieth minute the French have another big opportunity but Hope makes the dive just in time to be able to block the ball and JJ is there to head it away. Just before half time Press runs through the French defense, she makes it look easy, and puts the ball away. The US happy they can go into half time with a 2-0 lead.

Hope almost has an assist in the second half but Arod doesn’t manage to get the ball down and gives it away. Alex has a few chances but isn’t able to convert them. One time Hope (and everyone else) was certain she would be able to put it in, she side netted the ball. Hope is a bit surprised by this, Alex Morgan normally does not miss shots like this. Kelley comes in the game just before the seventieth minute mark, leaving her a bit more than 20 minutes of playing time.

Jill surprises everyone by subbing Kelley in as a midfielder. Apart from the goalkeeper position Kelley has by now played on all positions for the USWNT. The French are awarded a PK in the eightieth minute after Kling pulls down Delie. Hope actually loves it, because it gives her another opportunity to prove herself. Hope makes the safe, the ball comes in too hard for Hope to be able to catch it in this position so she punches it away. Kling is the first one to congratulate her (also because  Hope kind of saved six with that save). Carli and Kelley are next, Carli just pats her arm while Kelley goes for a hug. Hope swears Kelley is going for a kiss so she back away a bit, Kelley realizes where they are and quickly pats Hope’s back and turns away hoping no one noticed the interaction. On her way away from Hope she does receive a slap on her ass. In the 85th minute Kling is subbed out for Wambach so Kelley does drop back to right back.

The whistle blows eight minutes later but the USA doesn’t feel like jumping around in celebration. Players from both teams congratulate each other on the play. Kelley goes for a quick hug from Hope before shaking hands with the opponents. Kelley talks with Abily for a while. Paying her respect and asking if she is all right (Abily was already bruised before the game and in the game she took some hard hits) but it appeared apart from a headache, the French midfielder felt fine.

 

After the medal ceremony Cheney and Kelley leave for NY. They have a photoshoot with UA. Kelley is a bit nervous, this will be her first ever photoshoot. Both players sleep most of the flight back to the States, the time they are awake Kelley asks Cheney a bunch off questions about the sponsorship and photoshoot.

Hope joins Tobin, Pinoe and some French players for a drink.

Usually Hope stays a couple more days, to visit some cities and to live and enjoy the moment without having to watch out for journalists or fearing someone will recognize her. She could just be another woman walking around in the streets, drinking a cup of coffee, …  
But with preseason already started and Hope not knowing her team yet she decides to fly back to the States with the others.

 

 

Hope is waiting outside Sea-Tac airport for Kelley to arrive. She wanted to wait inside but on her way from her car to the entrance she was already recognized (and asked for a picture and autograph) four times. So she turned back around and decided it was safer to wait in her car.  
Kelley’s plane has landed, she knows she will not see Hope faster by hurrying out of the plane (she still will have to wait for her luggage) so she decides to stay seated and wait patiently till everyone is out of the plane. Kelley checks her messages in meantime. She is a bit sad to read Hope is waiting outside but she understands it. She looks up and the airplane is almost deserted, she stands up and makes her way to the door. Kelley thanks the flight attendants and whishes them a safe flight back.

By the time Kelley makes her way to the luggage belts she only has to wait a minute or two before she spots her bag.  
She quickly picks up her bag and makes her way to where Hope said she would be. A few girls recognize her (Kelley is surprised by this) and Kelley takes a few pictures with them before making her way outside.

Hope spots Kelley and gets out of her car. She looks around, too many people around to give her a kiss. Hope does give her a quick hug and puts the bags in the trunk while Kelley sits down in the passenger’s seat. They get home without being noticed together by fans or journalists. Kelley talks the whole ride back about NY, UA (and Cheney).

 

They arrive home half an hour later. Hope insists on carrying Kelley’s bags inside. While Hope puts the bags down in the laundry room Kelley looks around. She notices not that much has changed from the way they (she) left things before they left for the Algarve Cup.

“Do you need to go in training today?” Kelley asks while swinging her arms around Hope’s neck.  
Hope places her arms on Kelley’s hips before answering “No. Laura gave me today and the next two days off.” Hope finishes the sentence with a kiss.  
“She did?”  
Hope nods “She did” and leans down and kisses Kelley again.

 

Kelley stands on the balcony and looks down at their garden. Hope is busy working in their garden. She makes her way down and  squads down next to Hope.  
“Since when do we have a vegetable garden?”  
“I always had one, I just didn’t really took good care of it when I was in the wheelchair.” Hope looks at the plants in front of her.

Kelley wants to hit herself, _Off course she could not have taken care of it when she was in her wheelchair._  
They proceed in silence for a while, Hope notices Kelley knows her way around a shovel and secateurs.  
Kelley walks to get the hose, Hope looks at her and quickly gets up. One moment Kelley walks alongside the pool, next moment she is in the pool.

Kelley resurfaces and looks at a smiling Hope.  
  
Hope knows chances of her getting pulled into the water are pretty big, but she squads down anyways and sticks out her hand for Kelley to take. Kelley takes it and tries to pull Hope into the pool. Hope lets go after a few seconds and Kelley once again falls into the pool. Hope once again sticks out her hand for Kelley to take. This time she pretends to fight Kelley getting her into the pool but easily gives in after a few seconds. She does make sure she doesn’t call on top of Kelley.

By the time she resurfaces she catches Kelley staring at something. Hope looks up and finds Capt. Sully staring at them like they are crazy.  
“He’s just jealous” Hope says and dives back under to grab Kelley’s legs.  
Kelley realized too late what Hope was planning on doing and cannot prevent Hope from taking her legs. Kelley rolls around a few times and swings with her arms in an attempt to keep her at the surface. She then lunges forward and swings her arms around the keeper’s neck.  
“What are you going to do now?” Kelley asks with a smile.  
Hope bends down, pulling Kelley underwater with her. Kelley did saw this one coming and gasped for air before they disappeared underneath the surface. After playing around for a while Hope and Kelley make their way inside the house, leaving a trail of small water pools behind.

 

The next two days fly by way too fast. It is Kelley’s last morning in Seattle.  
She is snuggled into Hope and she can feel the keeper’s strong arms around her. Kelley is surprised she is the first one awake. She certainly is going to miss this. But she will see the keeper again in just 10 days.

 

Kelley and Hope are once again at the airport, this time to say goodbye. Hope does go inside this time. She eve surprises her girlfriend by pulling her into a really tight hug and whispering an “I love you” into Kelley’s ear, Hope can feel Kelley smile. “See you in a couple weeks” Hope adds while she lets go of her girlfriend. “See you soon”. The defender picks up her purse and walks to the airport security. Before she reaches the line she looks back one more time, Hope still stands there, watching her walk away.

 


	37. Start of the season

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is a bit shorter but it covers some much needed drama.

A lot of trainings, a couple facetime calls, texts, a sold car and a won international game later, the NWSL opening weekend has finally arrived.

Hope arrives early at the stadium so she can watch the FCKC vs SBFC game. She knows if she would have watched it at home she would not have been able to watch the entire game. Since it takes her quite some time to cycle to the stadium. She is soon joined by her fellow keeper, who apparently always arrives an hour or two early.

Haley talks about her experience she had with both teams from last season, she also talks a lot about Kelley, who used to be her teammate. Hope is not surprised to see Jim put Kelley in as a defender (probably on Jill’s request). When Kelley goes into that tackle again Moros Hope holds her breath for a moment. It is clean tackle because Kelley goes twice for the ball, only hitting Moros afterwards but still, it was kind of a violent one.

Hope watches Kelley talking to the referee, she is not going to get booked for that one but Hope does hopes Kelley will take less risks in the remaining minutes. Hope spots the referee talking to Moros afterwards. From what Hope could tell he wasn’t too happy with Becca’s reaction.

The game is almost coming to an end. Pearcie is subbed off. Hope is surprised to see Pearcie handing the captain’s band to Kelley before she runs towards the sideline. The yellow card wasn’t really smart but it was typical Kelley. She always goes 100 percent for the ball, unfortunately Hao was just a bit closer to the ball and got it away before Kelley’s foot came back down. Resulting in Kelley tackling Hao.  
Hope feels for Cameron, as a goalkeeper you don’t want too many set pieces this close to you, certainly not three minutes before the end of the game. Averbuch however, skies the shot. Minutes later the referee blows the whistle, indicating the end of the game.

 

Hope gets a text not much after the game has ended and excuses herself. She walks outside and looks around. It doesn’t take too long to spot the person she had been searching for.  
“Hope” says the teenage girl excitingly.  
The keeper smiles, although the girl sounds excited, Hope can see the sad look in her eyes. She got to walk again while Jess is still in her wheelchair.  
They talk for a few minutes and Hope promises to come over with some other players after the game. Jess wishes her good luck and makes her way into the stadium.

The entire squad has arrived by now, Laura is giving some sort of pep talk and minutes later they step onto the pitch to warm up. Hope is discussing some last minute changes with Laura when Syd walks by. From the look on the forward’s face Hope knows this will be a physical game. Hope has never backed away from a physical game and neither will she do now, she just hopes no one will get injured.

 

The team heads back into the locker room to change into their game jerseys and listen too Laura, who once again goes over the game plan. Hope looks at her gloves, the left one is supporting her name, the right one is empty.  
“Hope what are you smiling at?” yells Pinoe from the other side of the locker room and suddenly all the attention is on Hope.  
Hope looks up, everyone is staring at her, she cannot tell she was thinking about putting Kelley’s name on her right glove after the world cup. “I’m just glad I’m able to be here today and play with you guys.”

It sounds plausible, Pinoe stares at Hope. The keeper has changed so much but then again Pinoe had no idea how much (temporary) paralysis changes people.  
“What is happening? Hope Solo going all sappy on us?”  
The keeper gives Pinoe her infamous glare and throws one of her gloves at Pinoe.  
Laura continuous her speech. Pinoe gives the keeper’s glove back before the team walks out of the locker room.

  
While they are waiting to walk onto the pitch Pinoe quickly walks forward and gives Hope a pat on the shoulder and says “For the record, I’m so hyped you are back” before quickly going back to take her place between Cox and Bev. Hope laughs, she is really happy to have Pinoe as her teammate. Although they will spent the majority of the season with the national team. It is always nice to have someone like Pinoe on your (club) team.

They walk onto the pitch, Hope looks around, it’s her first NWSL game. Hope looks to the section she used to sit last year and is once again remembered how much her live has changed in these past year and a half.  
Hope stands between two young players, she has never played with, but she has a lot of confidence in both players. In the short period she got to know Keelin and Lauren (and all the other players) she got a special kind of appreciation for these two girls.  
Hope gets an extra loud round of applause (when her name is called). This game has a lot of extra attention, the stadium is sold out 12000, the majority of them are fans wanting to see Hope play. There are also a lot of reporters, scouts from other teams, even Pia is there. Not only to see how the keeper is going to perform but she also wanted to talk to the keeper.

  
Both teams are ready. Hope looks at her team. She is nervous but at the same time she feels confident they will win this game. Everyone can see how hard Syd wants to win this game. She is running all over the place and often engages in tackles that are a bit more violent than they should be.  
Jess Fishlock scores the game’s first goal in the 24th minute although it eases the other players a bit, Hope is even more focused, knowing they will come at her twice as hard, wanting to score the equalizer. In the 36th minute it seemed they would be able to secure their win but Little puts the PK wide.

Hope is not happy with her clearance around the 40th minute, she mishits the ball and it ends up not too far away from her box but in the end the team is able to clear the ball without any more damage, that is apart from Syd’s kick at Keelin’s leg off course.  
The Reign is controlling the play by now, Hope had to pull off some not too hard saves.  
She does pull off some ‘easy’ saves and gets a few balls played back and once comes way out of her box to retrieve a ball and send it forward to Pinoe.  
Laura isn’t really happy with the refereeing. Calls that should have been made aren’t called and other calls that should not have been called area called.

 

The couple minutes before the end of the first half Hope sees some more action and in stoppage time she snatches a cross out of the air to send it back to midfield. Not that much later sounds the half time whistle. The teams head into the locker room with a 1-0 lead for the Reign. Laura is glad with the 1-0 lead but she isn’t happy with their performance. She knows they can play way better than this. 

 

In the 50th minute a pass through (Hope’s defense) leaves Hope sprinting to the top of the box to get to the ball before Syd does. She dives and curls her body around the ball. 2 seconds later she gets hit in the back of the head and in the back. The next moment everything goes blank. Syd gets up gingerly. She wants to check on the keeper but is pushed away by Reed.

The stadium is dead silent, they all heard a sound when Syd’s cleats connected with Hope’s back. By the time Hope reopens her eyes, Fletcher is sitting next to her and medics are signaled onto the pitch.

In meantime a replay of the incident is played (on tv) in slow motion, the camera resting on Hope after the collision.

Almost 2000 miles away Kelley is losing it. From what she saw on tv, it didn’t look good. She even swears she heard Hope’s bones breaking when the two collided. Some players of SBFC and FCKC came together to watch the game.

Becky, Cheney, Hao, Pearcie, Barnie and Arod are also shocked. The collision reminds them to the one that left Hope partially paralyzed. The only difference here is that Hope isn’t slammed into a goalpost but Syd did come in way harder than Sinclair did. Cheney is the first to pull out of it. She looks at the SBFC left back. Although Kelley wants to stay to see what is happening at the same time she wants to get away. She doesn’t want to see her lover lying on the ground like that.

  
Cheney gets up seconds after the defender and follows her into the kitchen.  
Before Kelley can say anything Cheney wraps her arms around her and hugs her tightly.  
“She will be all right. Hope is strong.”  
Kelley doesn’t really know what to do and just holds onto the midfielder.

After a while, Cheney gauges the defender is strong enough to move and moves them to the chairs. She sits Kelley down.

“I’m ok. I really am.”  
Kelley realizes that this might come off strange. You are not supposed to react like this when it is just a friend that is lying there. _How am I going to explain this?_  
“Kelley, it is ok to be upset. I mean, I would be too if that would have been Jrue, who lies there. I would freak out.”  
Kelley looks in shock at Cheney.  
If this situation hadn’t been so serious, she would have laughed, the look on Kelley’s face is priceless.

  
“How did you know?” Kelley asks surprised.  
This time the midfielder does smile, “It is quite hard to miss how much Hope Solo has changed since she came back and that you two seemed to be friends instantly.” Cheney waits a second before adding “And I saw the note she left you at your place.”

A smile creeps onto the defenders face, she only noticed the note after Cheney had already left and since the midfielder hadn’t confronted her she figured Cheney didn’t saw the note.   
“Why didn’t you say something back then?”  
“I didn’t think it was my place to say so. I figured you will tell me when you are ready.”  
“We would have told if the World Cup wasn’t so close by.”  
Although the midfielder wants to asks a million of questions she realizes this is not the time nor the place to do so.

Kelley says “You do know we are not married.” with a smile on her face.  Cheney laughs “I would have hoped that we are at least invited to the wedding." Cheney grabs some bottles of water and the duo walks back to their teammates.  
“What did we miss?” Cheney asks and puts down the bottles of water before sitting down next to Kelley.

 

Back in Seattle. (Commentators POV)  
‘We can hear the Reign players arguing with the ref and coach Harvey arguing with the forth official. Apart from that, it is dead silent in the stadium, fans are too shocked to do anything else.  
Haley is warming up at the sidelines while the medics are taking care of Hope Solo.’  
‘The referee shows now, only now, a red card to Sydney Leroux. But instead of walking off the pitch, the forward walks to the fallen keeper and sits down next to her.’

The camera’s had been following Syd so the viewers at home got a close up from the injured keeper. Kelley could clearly see blood streaming down the keeper’s neck. She hates the fact that she is so far away and the only thing she can do is pray for the best.

‘Ouch’  
The other commentator tries to change the topic ‘Earlier today FCKC played SBFC and lost by 1-0. An early goal from Nadia Nadim put Sky Blue up by one goal and they managed to hold onto their lead for the remaining minutes’

Kelley shift uncomfortably, Cheney squeezes her hand. A few rings are heard, most of them receiving texts from (NT) teammates asking if they know anything more about Hope.

Kelley feels her phone vibrating and looks at it. She has a few missed calls from her sister. Erin calls once again. Kelley ignores it, she knows she will not be able to get through that call with breaking down so she sends her sister a text instead, telling her she knows nothing more than everyone else. Kelley is tempted to try and call Laura but she knows the coach will not pick up. Not much later she receives a text from Tobin. After reading it she felt a bit more optimistic. Although the midfielder didn’t have an update on the keeper’s condition she did manage to write down some inspirational words.

 

The Reign players want Syd away from their keeper. Keelin, although she is also furious at Syd she is still the captain, tells Syd she has to leave before something worse happen. Some flash players escort Syd off the pitch. Keelin than gathers her teammates and those who are not helping with Hope’s condition are send to the sidelines. Keelin looks at Pinoe, who nods at her, and she joins her team at the sideline.

Whitney, a Flash defender, walks up towards her national team teammates Hope and Pinoe. Laura and the assistant coach brief the team on their new plan. Laura knows there is a big possibility the Flash will score in the first few minutes of play. She tells them that they need to try to keep their head with the game. The game is only over when the final whistle is blown.

‘Haley was talking to the goalkeeper coach seconds ago and stands now at the ready at the sideline to come into the game for Hope Solo.  
Hope Solo, who was earlier in a collision with former Reign forward Sydney Leroux is still down. Medics are taking care of her and making sure stabilized before they carry her off the pitch.’

‘This is actually Hope’s first NNWSL appearance. She missed last year’s season (the inaugural season) after a collision with Canadian forward Christine Sinclair left her partially paralyzed. In that collision she was slammed against one of the goalposts and badly injured her spinal cord. Everyone thought it was a career ending injury. US Soccer only made one statement at the time and I thought there was no way Hope would ever walk again.

So it had been a big surprise to see Hope walking onto the field after an USWNT game to honor her friend Carli. It was clear she kept her comeback from her teammates because they were very surprised to see her walking onto the pitch. Since then she has been not really lucky. In her first game back she accidently hit in the face by the Canadian forward Melissa Tancredi and had to be subbed out because the swelling around her right eye prevented her from seeing much through it. Then this game, her first game back she gets hit by Western New York Flash forward Sydney Leroux.’  
     
‘Let just Hope that she comes out this collision without any serious injuries.’ The other commentator interrupts not really wanting to hear all the recent tackles the keeper has been in.  
‘If not, her place on the World Cup squad may be endangered.’  
‘I bet Jill is wondering if she should have forbidden her players from playing these games before the World Cup. Ali Krieger, the right back for the USWNT was carried of the pitch two days back. She suffered a concussion and is expected to be back just in time for the send-off series.’

‘What worries me the most is that we still have to see Hope move. Earlier we could see she had her eyes open so that means she is conscious. But she hasn't moved her arms or legs yet.”  
‘I just hope her spine isn’t damaged.’  
‘I think we all hope so. I don’t know if any coach would take the risk of putting Hope back out there if she suffered another injury to the spinal cord.’

 

The paramedics put Hope onto the back board and onto a stretcher. USWNT teammate Megan Rapinoe is standing next to Hope, talking to her. Whitney Engen is also still standing next to them.

The medics start walking towards the sideline. Haley runs onto the pitch she makes her way to the team. They form a circle and they get each other spirits up. In meantime Whitney is called back to their side of the pitch.  
Once the paramedics and Pinoe reach the sidelines Laura takes over Pinoe’s place and the midfielder runs back onto the pitch. Laura stops the paramedics for a second so she can talk to her keeper. They want to keep moving so after a couple seconds they tell the coach they really have to get the keeper into the hospital.

Just like at the Houston game (and Ali Krieger’s injury) the public gives Hope a round of applause when the medics are taking her to the ambulance. But unlike at the Houston game, Hope does not gives the fans a thumbs up.

 

 


	38. The hospital

 

“No, no no .This is not supposed to be happening.”  
TUUT TUT TUT TUT  
“BP is dropping!”  
TUTUTUTUT  
“More suction, I need more suction”  
TUTUTUTUTUT  
“Come on .. where are you?” says the doctor while looking for the bleeder…  
TUTUTUTUTUTUTUT  
“systolic has gone to eighty five”  
TUTUTUTUTUTUT  
“Just give me a second” … and frantically searches further.  
TUTUTUTUTUTUTUTUTUTUTUTUTUTUT

 

They really should not be allowed to have medical drama’s on TVs in hospitals” Pinoe does this things with her hands she always does when she is trying to make a point before continuing “I mean they are not going to play the titanic on cruise ships neither air crash investigation on airplanes so who do they put a medical drama on TV in a hospital?”

Laura chuckles, she wants to say something but she spots a doctor walking towards the nurse’s station so instead of replying she gets up and makes her way to the station.

 

“How in the world did you manage to walk away from that with only some bruising and other minor injuries?”  
Hope nods towards the table next to her.  
Laura turns her head and looks at the table.  
Laura takes the brace and looks at it. She can clearly see the damage made by Syd’s cleats. She doesn’t even want to think about the damage they might have done if Hope hadn’t been wearing this brace.  
“Did we win? I wanted to watch the game but they didn’t want to give me a phone or laptop to see it.”  
“No phone? So you haven’t called Kelley jet?”  
“The look on the keeper’s face tells Laura she did not do such thing.  
_Kelley. I totally forgot she was watching the game._  
“Here” Laura hands her her phone, already having dialed Kelley’s number.

“Howisshe? Canshestillmoveherlegs?.... ”  
Hope feels bad for not thinking about Kelley.  
“Kelley?”  
The line is dead silent for a second.  
“Hope?”  
“Kelley”  
“How bad is it?” Kelley asks timid  
“Bruises and some minor injuries. Nothing too serious.”  
“No Hope seriously, how bad is it?”  
“I’m, no serious injuries. My back and legs are fine.”  
“Show me”  
“How?”  
“You are calling with Laura’s phone aren’t you?”  
“Yes”  
“So switch to FaceTime.”

They change the phone call into a FaceTime session.  
Hope toggles the camera so they are filming her legs, she moves them “See my legs are fine”.  
She is glad Kelley couldn’t see her face at the same time, Laura did though and she did see the grimace on Hope’s face. Although Hope might have said she is fine, moving her legs is clearly painful.

  
“What? How is that possible. I could hear your bones breaking when you and Syd collided.”  
“Scott put me up with some company that makes protective gear for soldiers. They made me this protective brace.”  
Laura makes her way to Hope and hands Hope the brace. Hope makes sure to not show Kelley the damaged part.  
Laura signals she’ll wait outside but Hope tells her she can stay.

Hope can hear a “Who are you talking to?” through the phone  
Kelley quickly answers “Hope”  
The next moment Hope sees her USWNT teammates fighting for the phone to get a look at the keeper.  
They are all asking questions at the same time, resulting in Hope not understanding one of them.

At the same time Hope’s teammates barge into the room.  
There is a moment of silence once everything has settled down a bit, meaning she ended the phone call and has reassured her teammates she is fine.    
“tell me about the game. What did I miss?”  
“Pinoe’s hat-trick.”  
“Damn Pinoe, you couldn’t have scored this goals when I was there?” Hope asks with a smile  
A doctor comes into the room, ending whatever conversation that was going on.  
“Take care and we’ll see you soon” Pinoe says and leads the group of players out of the room.  
“I’ll wait outside” Laura adds and follows her girls outside.

Another doctor walks inside, holding something big.  
“you remember what I talked about earlier?”  
“Yes”  
“You will need to wear this 24/7 for the next week. It will allow your spine and backk to rest a bit and heal. It is custom made so it should fit perfectly.”

Hope gets out of the bed, she is still in her game outfit.  
“You loosen the Velcro and pull it open, then you turn and put it on sideways.”  
Hope nods, the doctor tightens the Velcro.  
“It is important to tighten them otherwise the brace will have no effect.”  
Hope nods. It is a bit harder to breath but as long as she keeps her breathing shallow it will all be fine.  
They go over some details before Laura comes back into the room.

Laura tries not to show her shock too much. It is weird to see her keeper in this white, looking extremely uncomfortable brace.  
“Ready to leave?”  
“Yes”  
Hope looks around, seemingly searching for something.  
“Here take mine” Laura says while handing Hope her hoodie.  
“Thanks” Hope didn’t really wanted to walk out of her showing the brace to everyone so she is glad Laura gives her her hoodie to cover the brace.  
Walking feels weird and unnatural, it also feels like her spine is not carrying any weight. Which is actually true because the weight of her upper body is carried by the brace (and her hips).

Ben is waiting outside in his car. Hope is glad he doesn’t drive a sports car, she is pretty sure she would not have been able to get in it. The drive to Hope’s home is relatively silent, Only Hope saying the occasional “Next street to the left, you need to have the third exit,…”

  
“You really don’t have to stay, I can take care of myself.” Hope says while trying to get out of the car.  
“Hope, you just got out of the hospital and I promised Kelley I would look after you. I’m not leaving you all by yourself.”  
Hope wants to argue but is surprised by the dog running from the back of her house towards them. Hope looks confused.  
She wants to bent down to pet it but forgot she is wearing this hard brace and cannot bent forward, she clumsily squads down and pets the dog, she recognizes him.  
Although she is looking at the dog, it isn’t meant for him “What are you doing here?”  
“Well you did say I should come visit before you go to this tournament in Canada.”  
Laura looks up confused, she had no clue what was going on or where this other woman was coming from.  
_How did she get here this fast?_ Hope thinks  
“That’s true, I just didn’t think you would actually come.”  
“Well it has been a long time since I visited Seattle and who else is going to take care of you.”  
Hope is surprised her friend knows she is injured, she suddenly realizes something “Laura you can go home, Luce can take care of me.”  
The coach looks at the 20 something year old woman named Luce, from the accent the woman has Laura could tell she was no American or at least not native but the keeper seemed to trust her.

 

“You sure there is nothing I can do for you?”  
“I’m sure. Thank you for bringing me home and I’ll see you tomorrow at the debriefing.”  
“You’re welcome. You don’t have to come tomorrow Hope.”  
Hope nods, but she will be there. She puts up her hand to say goodbye to Ben.  
Once the car is off her driveway Hope turns around, “Can you grab the spare key?”  
“Hope Solo has a spare key laying around? What happened to ‘they are too easy for thieves to find them’?”  
“Well, when you live with Kelley O’Hara it is kind of mandatory to have a spare key lying somewhere around.”  
“I do want to go get it but can you tell me where is it?”  
“You cannot find it on your own?  
Luce tilts her head “I could if you don’t mind waiting outside.”  
“Fine I’ll tell, but only because I want to get inside to sit down.”

Luce opens the door and follows Hope into the house.  
Hope clumsily sits down onto the couch. She tries to get back up but fails. She tries again, she can feel her abs contracting but nothing happens, her body is not moving.  _This is really going to be interesting…_

Luce opens the backdoor and takes her backpack inside  
“Do you mind having him inside?”  
“No he can stay.”  
Luce spots Hope struggling to get back up.  
“Struggling?”  
“I can’t move my upper body with this thing and my ribs hurt like hell.”  
Luce sticks out her hand for Hope to take.  
“What are you wearing underneath it?”  
“My jersey and sports bra, I didn’t really have anything else with me.”  
“Do you mind if I go look in your closet?”  
Hope looks questioning, not really knowing what Luce is planning on doing. But tells her too go ahead.

Luce goes upstairs and rummages through Hope’s clothes. It takes a while but she finally finds what she was looking for.

 

“All right, first off all, take off all your clothes.”  
The look on Hope’s face is golden.  
“I’m not saying you need to strip in front of me. The seam of your sports bra will push harder into your skin, resulting in the bruising of your ribs. So what I want you to do is, after I turn around, take off all your clothes, put on this shirt inside out and then put the brace back on.” Luce says and hands Hope the shirt before turning around.

Hope is relieved she finally can release these velcros and take off the brace.  
While she takes off her jersey she asks “How do you know all these stuff?”  
“I have worn something similar for almost 2 years.”  
“Why would someone wear this for 2 years??”  
“Scoliosis. My spine was basically growing in a long s-shape instead of a straight line, so they put me in a brace like that to prevent it from getting worse.”

Hope looks at her side and can clearly see the print of the seam of her shirt and sports bra on her skin.  
She puts on the shirt Luce gave her and puts the brace back on.  
“Did it work?”  
“I guess it did.”  
Luce hears the velcros and turns back around, “You will get handier in doing everything while wearing that brace. I don’t know how long you will need to wear it but you will probably no longer need to wear it by the time your body has fully adjusted to it.”  
_Great,_ “The doctor said a week, but that can change.”

 

“So what do you want for dinner?” Luce asks  
“Don’t really know, we can order something.”  
“I’m not going to let you order take out. I’ll try to make something.”  
“I think I prefer take out, just to be sure.”  
“Ha ha ha” Luce throws a pillow in hope’s direction “Watch it, I might push you on your back and let you lying there while I eat everything on my own.”

 

15 minutes later Luce walks into the living room, carrying 2 trays.  
“It actually smells and looks kind of eatable.”  
Luce gives her a look that would have others shivering, not Hope though.  
Instead Hope just puts on a Mariners game.

 

“What did Jill say?”  
“I still have to call her.”  
“Are you afraid she will keep you off the roster?”  
“I don’t really know. I guess so.”  
“Why? Your spine isn’t injured. It just needs some rest.”  
“I know, but she doesn’t know that yet.”  
“You really should call her.” With that Luce takes the empty plates and walks to the kitchen. She comes back with a phone and puts it down in front of Hope.  
She takes the trays and says “I’m going for a walk with my dog”  
“You haven’t named him yet?”  
“No, I cannot come up with a good name so until I have found one I just call him a bunch of different names.”  
Hope laughs and shakes her head “You really should give him a name”  
“I know” and with that Luce walks to the kitchen.

 

An hour earlier.  
“Damn Syd, not cool.”  
“I know I’m sorry”  
“Sorry is not going to cut it Sydney.”  
Syd knows she is in real trouble. She didn’t mean to injure Hope, she just wanted to get to the ball. But if she was really honest with herself she knew she was not going to make it in time. She just doesn’t know why she didn’t stop running or why she thought she could steal the ball by sliding towards Hope.  
“I get you are angry Laura traded you to the Flash but that is no reason to work your anger out on Hope. Get over it and move on!”  
The forward is silent for a moment “What am I going to do next?”  
“You apologize to Hope, Laura, the Reign, NWSL and your Flash teammates.”  
At the last mentioning Syd looks up surprised  
“You also let them down. You made it very clear you don’t want to be with them. How do you think that makes them feel? You play in a professional league, so act like one.”

 

 

Hope lies down onto the bed, she lies on her back. Her phone (the landline) rings, she wants to get back up but fails, “right, you cannot get up with this thing” Hope mutters out loud. She manages to turn onto her side and uses her arms to push her up, quickly places her knee underneath her and manages to sit upright.

“Hi” Hope says while falling onto her back  
“Are you all right? You sound out of breath.”  
“I’m all right, I’m still getting used to moving around with this thing.”  
“What thing?”  
_Right, I didn’t tell Kelley._  
“They put me into a hard brace for a couple days to give my spine some time to heal.”  
“I thought your spinal cord wasn’t damaged.”  
“It isn’t. They just want to give it some rest.”  
“Can I see it?”  
“What?”  
“The brace”

  
“You might have forgotten but my landline doesn’t have a camera function.”  
“Right. Can you grab your laptop?”  
Hope lifts up her head, just a bit because her neck is also injured.  
“Nope. I don’t think I will ever be able to get out of bed again.”  
Kelley chuckles “Describe it”  
“I do think you can find it on the internet but It is mainly made out of hard plastic.”  
“How did they made it?”  
“They used a cast as mall.”  
“a plaster cast?”  
“Yes. They put it all over me from my neck to a few inches lower then my hips. It was so hot and heavy to breathe.”  
Kelley tries to imagine how that would have looked like.

Hope uses Kelley’s moment of silence to change topic, “How is your ankle?”  
“It just ached a little bit, nothing too serious.”  
“Did the trainer looked at it after the game?”  
“Yes, I just need to be cautious but they are confident it will heal on its own.”

It was silent for another moment.  
“Everything all right?”  
“Cheney knows”  
“Cheney knows what?” Hope replies confused, not really sure what Kelley is aiming at.  
“About us” Kelley takes a deep breath before continuing “After you went down … I freaked out for a moment, she took care and told me she saw the note you left me at my place.”  
Hope is silent for a moment, not because she dislikes the fact someone else knows but because someone else read the note that was intended for Kelley.  
  
“Kell, it’s ok … I don’t mind people you care about knowing about us. If the world cup would not have been so close I would have let the world known I’m in love with you. But I want to give us both a fair shot to make the Word Cup squad. So no, I don’t mind Cheney finding out.”  
Kelley is relieved.  
“But let just try to keep it off the staff’s radar until after the World Cup.”  
“Of course.”

 


	39. Stay at home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It might seem things are moving rather quickly in this and (especially) the next chapter, but I'm trying to catch up before the USWNT's first World Cup game.

“I thought you didn’t drink coffee.” Hope mutters and sits down on a chair.  
“I don’t. I’m drinking chocolate milk.” Luce says while filling a cup with coffee for Hope.  
“Thanks.”  
Hope takes the cup of coffee and reads the newspaper.  
By the time Hope is halfway through it Luce asks “How did you sleep?”  
“It was hell. If lie on my back I cannot move, if I try to lie on my side I roll over. I tried to lie on my stomach but for some reason my arms kept getting squeezed between the plastic and my matrass.”  
She then goes back to reading her newspaper, from time to time commenting on some of the articles.

 

They just finished breakfast and Luce had seen Hope scratching the patches on her neck multiple times so she decides to ask “How is your neck?”.  
“It itches like hell” Hope says and scratches the dressings to make her point.  
Luce takes the clean and new dressings the hospital had given to Hope “Let me take a look at it.”  
Hope turns her head so the dressings are easier accessible.  
“I thought studs had to be round to prevent damage like this.”  
“Apparently Nike is trying out a new kind of cleats, with studs shaped like the swoosh.”  
“Really? Ouch”  
“Exactly, I’m going to let them know that it’s not really a great thing. I hope they stick with the regular studs.”  
“Maybe they wanted to have free marketing.”  
“What do you mean?”  
“Well if you hit someone with those studs you leave a mark in the shape of the swoosh behind, so free marketing for them. If the hit is hard enough it might even be for that player’s life.”  
“That’s a horrible idea.” Hope says while laughing, _imagine walking around with a scar in the shape of a swoosh for the rest of your life_.  
  
  
“Any plans for today?” Hope asks while putting the newspaper aside, not that she can read it at this angle anyway.  
“I’m going to the docks. That reminds me, can I borrow your bike?” Luce replies while inspecting the wound.  
“Off course. It’s is not like I would be able to bike now anyways.” Hope than remembers something and turns around “My bike is still at the stadium though….”  
The mischievous smile on Luce face makes her suspicious.  
Hope eyes her friend, “You stole it didn’t you?”  
“I did. But only because I knew it was your bike and it was pretty obvious you were not going to use it to go back home.” Luce says and turns Hope back around so she can finish cleaning the wounds  
Hope mutters something along the lines of “I thought that place had security, guess not.”  
Luce decided to not comment on that one (mainly because she didn’t entirely got what Hope said) and concentrates on the task for hands.  
Hope is curious as to why Luce needed to be at the docks but knows that she will probably find out later.  
  
“How early were you at the stadium because for you to be able to see me arrive on my bike you should have been there what around noon.”  
“I think I was there around 11am.”  
“That’s like 8 hours early”  
“Yes it is.”  
Hope waits for some more details but they never come. Sometimes the lack of response from Luce does bother Hope.  
“What happed to your car?”  
“Why would there be something with my car?”  
“You rode your bike to the stadium.”  
 Luce violently removed the last bandage. Hope lets out an ’ouch’ and wants to give Luce a pointed look but Luce holds her head firm so she isn’t able to turn her head.  
“I sold it”  
“Why?”  
“Well, Kelley gave Pinoe a couple rides so it would have raised to many questions if I arrive at training in the same car. And really I could use the money.”  
Hope isn’t really too eager to share the latter part.  
Luce realizes with Hope not playing for a year, recovering, buying the place in NY and owning the shelter for homeless she is probably using a big part of her savings.  
“Finished” She steps aside and gathers the old dressings to throw it away.  
“Thanks”  
“You’re welcome”

 

“Can you take care of Max while I’m gone?” Luce asks while walking back into the kitchen.  
“It’s Max now? Off course I can look after him, as long as he doesn’t expect me to go running after him.”  
Luce smiles “I took him for a pretty long walk this morning and he listens very well so that should not be a problem.”

 

The rest of the morning Hope spends most of her time on the couch, reading and from time to time petting Max. Hope realizes it has almost been a chapter since she saw or heard Max, that is usually not a good sign. She remembers Leo as a pup, whenever it was silent she knew it was trouble. Hope puts her book aside and goes looking for the pup. She finds him playing with Sully, this surprises her, she never would have thought Sully to befriend a dog, other than Leo. Maybe with Leo gone and Kelley in NJ captain sully felt a bit lonely.

Hope is on her way back to the couch when she spots some movement outside.  
She walks out in surprise “If you manage to trade my bike into that, I don’t mind.”  
Luce walks towards the back of the car, “It was actually already mine, I just went to pick it up.”  
  
Hope walks around the car, she spots her bike inside, (the wheels had been taken off though).  
“You shipped your car to Seattle?”  
“Yes” Luce says while unloading the bike.  
“How did it get here so fast?”  
“I did ship it before I left for the Algarve”  
Hope raises one eyebrow and replies “I thought you don’t plan ahead?”  
Luce just shrugs while putting the wheels back on the bike.

“I still cannot believe you shipped your car.” Hope says while picking up the pup.  
“Why not? I want to make a road trip.”  
“You do know you can rent a car in America”  
“I know, it’s just not the same.”  
“You and your cars.” Hope replies with a smile.  
“You will talk otherwise when you will need it.”  
Hope realizes she could use Luce’s car instead of buying a new one.  
“You let me drive your car?”  
“Maybe” and walks away with the bike.

 

“If you want I can give you a ride to the stadium so you can pick up your stuff, I need to go into town anyways.”  
Hope had totally forgotten about the debriefing.  
“Yeah, just give me some time to  get my stuff.”  
Hope comes back out minutes later.  
  
“The only downside is that the speed limit signs are in miles per hour and the speedometer is in kilometer per hour.”  
“That seems tricky. But at least you will not get any tickets for driving too fast.”  
“Only if I make the right calculations though.”

Hope is quickly reminded to Luce’s sportive style of driving. She never goes over the speed limit but she stays close to it and is fast to pull back up after a stop or turn. With the first sharp turn Luce takes, Hope slams against the door.  
“Forgot to tell you that you cannot use your muscles to hold your upper body upright when wearing that brace.”  
“Great…” Hope mutters and grabs the handle to pull her back upright..  
Luce does adapt her style so for the remaining of the ride Hope isn’t slammed into the door or against the driver’s seat.  
_Luckily I only have to wear this thing for a week._

 

”Send me a text when things are finishing up.”  
“Finishing up?”  
“Yeah. Finishing up.”  
Hope chuckles and says “Thanks for the ride. And I’ll text you when I’m finishing up.” She says that last part with a smile  
She tries to get out of the car but this one is a lot lower than Ben’s car so it is a lot trickier, but she manages

The debriefing has already begun. Hope knows she was not expected to be attending but still feels bad for arriving late.  
She silently sits down in the back, not wanting to interrupt Laura.  
Laura does subtle acknowledge her presence and continues on talking about last night’s performance. A few minutes later, after her video analysis Laura asks the opinions of the players. That’s when they notice the keeper. Hope stands up to make her way to the rest of the team.

Pinoe runs for Hope and engulfs her in  a bone crushing hug, everyone else gasps. Pinoe freezes, this is a second time something like this happened, the first time at Abby’s barbecue and now again.  
Realizing what she had just done Pinoe quickly backs away and apologizes.

“It’s fine, not that I felt anything of it.” Hope says while knocking onto the brace.  
A loud noise can be heard, spiking the players curiosity. Hope looks at Laura to see if it is ok to talk about it, meaning the coach’s debriefing will be cut short. Laura nods, she knows that the girls would be mainly focused on wondering where that noise came from instead of the debriefing.

 

Hope is glad to finally have answered all her teammates’ questions about her injury, the brace and the heeling process. She sneaks out of the room to retrieve her bag and having a moment of silence. She has only a few percentage left of her battery so Hope sends Luce a text telling her to come by around noon. She notices she has a lot of mails, missed calls, texts and other notifications, they will have to wait a little longer to be answered.

Hope spends some time with her teammates, around noon she says goodbye and walks outside. While waiting for Luce to arrive the keeper decides to answer a few of the messages and makes a mental note to call some of them later today.    
“Hope?”  
The keeper turns around “Whitney. I thought you guys left after the game.”  
“Sydney needed to be here to answer some more questions. So the coach decided to let us all stay a day and do some team bonding activity”  
_What kind of questions would be important enough to keep an entire team here?_  
Hope looks around but sees no other Flash players “Shouldn’t you be with your teammates then?”  
“Well that was the plan but they decided to go buy another coffee and I decided to cross the street and ask the Reign for an update on you since you haven’t really been replying any messages. And that’s when I spotted you.”  
“Yeah sorry about that. My bag was still at the stadium so I couldn’t really reply to any of those messages. I will answer them though once I get home. I first need to recharge the battery.”

  
“How are you?”  
“I’m fine. They put me into this brace and I cannot really do a lot with it but apart from that I’m good.”  
“Good to hear. You scared me out there.” And gently pats the keeper’s shoulder.  
“Well it was not my intention.”  
Whitney wasn’t too happy about the forward’s actions either but she is still her teammate so Whitney says “I don’t know what she was thinking but I can tell she feels bad.”  
Hope knows Whitney is looking after her teammate so she just nods.

 

Hope spots Luce’s BMW driving onto the parking lot.  
“I really need to go, my ride is here.  But it was nice running into you and I’ll keep you updated.”  
“It is great to know you are all right. I’ll keep you on that.”  
Hope is already walking away but puts up a hand to acknowledge Whitney’s statement.

 

Whitney watches the keeper as she walks away. She sees the keeper stepping into a car with a license plate that isn’t one from somewhere in the us.  
Later that day she talks to Ashlyn and unintentionally mentions the European car.  
Ashlyn made her tell all about it. But there wasn’t much to tell, the car was too far away to be able to see which country it belongs to.

 

The two women arrive back at Hope’s house. They spot someone waiting on Hope’s front porch.  
“Is it all right if I just drop you of and drive away? You can send me a text when she is gone.”  
“It’s just Jill, you don’t have to go away, you can just get out of the car and walk inside. You don’t have to go away.”  
“I know but I want to.”  
Hope looks at her friend, not really understanding why she wouldn’t just come inside. But she lets it go and gets out of the car, she tried to do it as fluent as possible.  
“Jill” Hope says with a hint of surprise in her voice.  
“Hope”  
Hope quickly opens the door and the two women walk inside while Luce drives away.

Hope drops her bag in the laundry room on her way to the kitchen and asks Jill if she has already eaten lunch. She did not, her flight arrived an hour or so ago and she took a cab to Hope’s place afterwards without stopping for lunch.

Hope cooks something simple for the both of them, in meantime Hope asks about her coach’s flight.

A couple minutes later, both woman are sitting down and start eating.  
Jill looks around, although it is not the first time she is here, it is the first time she notices how an amazing view Hope has. The trees and the lake, it is certainly a view the coach wouldn’t mind having at her home.  
“How are you?”  
“There is no damage to my spine so that’s great. I think I was just a bit shaken up but  the brace I‘m wearing now gives me the opportunity to rest my upper body for a few days and after that I should be ready to go full power again.”  
Jill nods, she had gotten an update from Hope’s doctor yesterday evening.  
“The plan right now is that I rest for a few days before I start training with my trainer Mac again. He is not a goalkeeper coach but he is the one that guided back from when I was paralyzed.”  
“Maybe Graeme could come the last week before camp. Ashlyn could come too so you two have some extra training before camp.”  
_Does this mean I’m on the world cup squad?_  
“Yeah, that could work” That’s _actually  a great idea_.  
“Tell me about the brace Laura told me you were wearing at the time of the incident.”  
“It’s military material. So it gives a lot of protection but enables me at the same time to keep moving like I would without it. I have another one, if you want to I can show you later.  
“I would love to.”

They continue eating in silence for a while.

“Are you staying in Seattle?”  
“Just for one night. Tomorrow I travel to Portland to check on Tobin’s and Alex’s injuries.” The coach isn’t too happy with the amount of injured players. But it is still a while till the world cup so hopefully the majority will be back 100 percent healthy by the time they play Australia.

 

Hope wants to know so she asks “Is this endangering my chance for a spot on the World Cup roster?”  
“No, it’s not. In fact the reason why I came here today is not only to check up on you.”  
Hope isn’t sure if this is going to be a positive thing or not.  
Jill grabs her bag and takes out some papers. We gave the girls these papers in Europe to fill in …..”  
Hope looks at the papers Jill handed her, “At the time everyone received one and they didn’t guarantee a spot on the World Cup roster. But now they are. Congratulations Hope, you are on the team.”  
There was a moment where she thought she would not make it back so Hope says “Thank you”  
“No, thank you for working so hard to come back. You deserve to be on the team.”  
Hope almost tells the coach someone else deserves most of the credit but she catches herself just in time “I had a lot of support though.”  


Jill helps Hope doing the dishes. Hope tries to pry the names of the other players but Jill tells them she needs to call them first. Hope takes the papers Jill gave her outside and sits down. The first pages are easy to fill in, it is just some basic personal information. Hope is surprised the federations doesn’t have this already. She marks a few things that she will have to look up later.  
“Is it alright if I write you down as my emergency contact person?” Hope asks  
“Off course, although I’m not really sure …. Wait does this mean you are going to Canada?”  
Hope smiles it feels so good to hear that. A couple months back she never would have believed she would ever make it back.  
“Yes it means I’m going to Canada.”  
“Congrats. Your next coffee is on me. And yes you can put me down as your emergency contact person.”  
“Thanks. I’ll come by one of these days to bring some documents and to get that free coffee.”  
  
 

 Hope makes her way back inside after that phone call, she looks up some of the missing details. And is about to put down her pen when her phone rings.  
“IMADEIT” Kelley screams before Hope can say anything.  
Hope winces and holds the phone a few inches from her ear.  
“I knew you would.” Hope replies.  
Although Kelley is super excited she does pick up on the keeper’s tone. _Wait, does that mean she didn’t make it? If Jill is calling in alphabetical order maybe Jill still has to call Hope, unless is not going by the last name than she should have called Hope already.  
_ “Has Jill called you yet?”  
“No she hasn’t called.”  
”Well the S comes after the O so she will probably call you in 15 minutes or so.”  
“Maybe, I’m not so sure she will call.”  
“Off course she will call you, you are the best keeper she has.”  
“No actually I’m pretty sure she is not going to call me.”  
“You cannot be sure of that Hope. You have been training hard, playing good. I think it would be a pretty dumb move to keep you off the roster. Why would you be so sure about that?””  
By now Hope has a hard time to refrain from laughing  
“Yes I’m. Because she is here, she told me in person that I’m on the team. So no she is not going to call me.” Hope had to laugh, Kelley’s reaction is just too good.  
  
Kelley hears Hope laugh and she has to laugh herself, “Not funny Hope. I thought for a moment she really left you off the roster.”  
“But it is good to know you think I’m the best goalkeeper.”  
“Well I didn’t quiet say that, I said you are the best goalkeeper she has.”  
Hope pouts, not realizing Kelley cannot see it.  
“Have you called your parents already?”  
“No they are my next call.”  
Hope feels special, Kelley chose to call her over calling her parents first.  
“Tell them I said hi.”  
“Will do. Can I call you tonight?”  
“Yes, just for your information, Jill probably will stay here for the night.”  
“As long as she is not sharing a bed with you I don’t mind.”  
“Good to know, we will take the couch then.”  
“Eew, gross babe.”  
“Just kidding.”  
“I’m just going to end this conversation and trying to get these images out of my head.”  
“Now how is gross?”  
“You started it.”  
“Whatever. I’ll see you tonight”

By the time Jill finishes an hour has passed. Hope had texted with most of the girls in meantime. Hope shows her, as promised, the protective brace. Afterwards Jill wants to go over some tactics. Once they are done talking tactics Hope figures she has nothing to lose so she says “I don’t want to overstep my boundaries. But what is your game plan? You asked Kelley to transition into a defender, which (in my opinion) she did great. In meantime Meghan has fine-tuned that position so it is logic you do not want to put Kelley as a left back over Meghan. You only play her when there is no tv-stream (or only few people watching)…” Hope trails off, realizing that last remark may have given more away than intended.  
Jill is surprised by Hope’s level of observation “I didn’t expect Meghan to evolve that much.” She continues “But with Alex out, I’m thinking of using Kelley as a forward again. I know Kelley is up for the challenge, whatever position she plays.”  
Hope is glad to hear that Jill believes Kelley is an all-round player she can put in the game on every position (except goalkeeper) but the problem with all-round players is that few believe they can shine real bright in one specific position, the majority thinks they are just mediocre in every position. So Hope isn’t entirely sure Jill’s remark is something positive.

 

                                       
Hope watches a lot games in the following days. In the beginning she watches them alone but after a while Ali joins her for short periods of time via FaceTime. The defender, still recovering from her concussion is also instructed to sit tight and wait till she is healed before she can start training again. She watches Sweden, Australia and Nigeria’s game, analyzing their play. But there are only so many games one person can see before getting bored. With Luce gone, she left yesterday, Hope starts to feel bored. Luckily Luce left Max or whatever his name is behind (she would only be gone for a day or two). Kelley had suggested for Hope to come to NY for a couple of days but Hope stated she couldn’t because she has training with Mac.  
Hope decides to go into training, she is not going to do anything, she just wanted to get to know her teammates a bit more. And help them with whatever knowledge she has.

 

“Do you miss me already?” Pinoe asks when she spots the injured keeper making her way to the sidelines.  
“Nah, I just wanted to give you some extra training, Laura cannot watch all of you so I decided to be your personal trainer for today” Hope says and throws a ball towards Pinoe.  
“Pssht, like I need any more training. I don’t know if you remember but I scored a hat trick last game.” Pinoe wants to kick the ball back to Hope but decides against it. Instead she places the ball in front of her and kicks the ball towards goal.  
“See” she says with the ball still in the air.  
Hope laughs “Looks like you could use some more practice.”  
The smile on Pinoe’s face drops when she sees Kopmayer easily catching the ball.

After training Hope joins a couple teammates for a coffee.

Pinoe has been playing with her knife for a while. She suddenly asks “Would I be able to stab you without injuring you?”  
The entire table is in shock.  
“I mean, would the brace be strong enough to withstand an attack with a knife?”  
“That depends if you hit the plastic I think it will be able to prevent the blade from going into my body. But if you hit the leather or one of the open spots you will probably kill me so no, you cannot try.”  
Pinoe pouts. It seems like she is thinking about it for a second so Merrit quickly takes the knife away.

 

A few days have gone by and Hope takes it easy. Although she is not allowed to train she does go into training every day and watches her teammates. Pointing things out they could work on some more. Drinking a coffee afterwards (or before). She basically tried her best to get to know her teammates. After a couple of days she finally got a hang of how to do most things while wearing this brace. She still hates it though. Once back home she usually calls for a short period of time with Ali, checking in on each other.

 

 

Luce comes back the day the Reign leave for Chicago.  
“How was the trip?”  
“It was great.”  
Hope waits a minute but when Luce remains silence Hope knows that is all her friend will tell her about it.

Hope is tired of analyzing the games and really wants to go out on the field. But she has to wait at least 2 more days before she is allowed to start training again. The last two days are the worst, because she feels fine and is tired of doing nothing. So Luce suggest they go for a hike.

 

Today is the day she has the appointment with the doctor. Hope is up early, not that that is going to change anything to her 10 am appointment.  
She is for once up before Luce so she decides to make breakfast.  
“Someone is eager to get out of the brace.” Luce says while walking into the kitchen.

  
The doctors didn’t want to let her wear it too long, not wanting to give her back muscles a chance to weaken.  
They are content with the healing and tell the keeper she can start training again.

Once back home Hope immediately takes off the brace and puts it far away. She wants to go for a short run but Luce tells her it’s not a good idea to do so. Something about her muscles needing to get used to holding her upright again. They do walk down to the lake. The pup, today named Jingo, runs into the water. The two women watch him play for a while. They get back just in time to watch the SBFC and SRFC’s games.

A few minutes after the Seattle game ends Hope’s phone rings and she excuses herself.  
She searches for her laptop and finds it in her office. A couple minutes later she has given her accountant all the information he needed.  
She is about to go back to start cooking dinner when Kelley asks if they can FaceTime.

“What do you want for dinner?” Luce yells while making her way to the kitchen.  
“Who’s that?” Kelley asks and moves her head so she can see to whom that voice belongs to, it’s ridiculous because she will never see more then Hope’s camera shows her.

“A friend. She stayed over to watch the games”  
“A friend?”  
“Luce”  
Kelley raked her brain, trying to remember if Hope mentioned Luce once before. But she could not come up with a memory of that. _It might be the girl Laura talked about. No that was a week ago, Hope would have told me._

 

Since Hope didn’t answer Luce goes searching for her and finds her in the office. She sees Hope talking to someone on her laptop. Luce silently apologizes and walks back out of the room. Since Hope was facing the door, Kelley didn’t see the girl.  
They talk about the game, Kelley is bummed they gave away the goal in the second half.  But in the end they were glad they still got a point out of it.  
By the time they end the call Kelley has already forgotten about Luce.

“Sorry, I didn’t know you were still on the phone.”  
“It’s all right.”  
“You still haven’t told her have you?”  
“No”  
“Why not?”  
Hope shrugs, _Because I have no idea where to start.  
_ They eat the rest of their meal in a comfortable silence.

Later that night Hope lies in her bed, she is glad she didn’t went on that run earlier. Her back is killing her. Soon she falls asleep.

  
The day the Reign returns Hope starts training again. She starts with some jogging and joining the midfielders in exercises on passing the ball.  It is actually refreshing to train with another players from another position. Different exercises, different people and more important she gets to work on a different part of her play.

 

“No way” Jess (Fishlock) lets out.  
Hope looks questioning at her teammate.  
“That’s your car?”  
“yes, that’s my car.” _Technically it is not mine._  
The Welsh midfielder is in awe, she didn’t expect the keeper to drive a European car.  
Jess walks around the car and inspects it. Hope is all of a sudden very glad to have put her license plates on the car, over Luce’s plates.

Hope didn’t really understand all the buzz around a BMW but maybe Jess is a fan of BMW because she was also a FFC Frankfurt player. Hope remembers Ali talking about her BMW back when she was playing for FFC Frankfurt. The defender could talk about that car for hours. Hope is pretty sure she still knows all the specifications of that car.  
Hope herself likes a fast car but she doesn’t care about the model, as long as it drives fast and is safe. Granted the car does really drive smooth. It is also a lot more sensitive than she expected it to be. Hope knows she will miss this car when Luce takes it back. And there is no way she can afford a car like that.

Pinoe all of a sudden got very excited “Will you give me a ride home? With Kelley gone I have to take the bus. And there is this old man sitting next to me every time I swear …”  
Before Pinoe can ramble any further Hope quickly says she can ride along.

                                                                                                        

The next thing Hope knows she has 4 teammates in her car and she is driving around town to drop them off at their respectively homes.  
“Damn Hope, you really know how to choose a car.”  
“Thanks.”  
“What made you choose for a BMW?” Haley asks.  
“Was it Ali and all her stories?” Pinoe asks  
Hope smiles, “Maybe. No it is just really a nice and safe car. Plus they gave me a discount.”

Hope comes home to Luce moving all of her stuff (= her backpack)“You really don’t have to move to the garage. I have enough space in the house.”  
“Thanks but I clearly don’t need to look after you anymore and I am already so grateful you let me stay here this long. With Kelley coming home soon, I don’t want to invade your personal space.”  
“Just know you are always welcome I my home”  
“Thank you. Do you need to use the car?”  
“No. And it is your car you know.”  
“If I am allowed to stay here than you are allowed to use the car.”

Hope walks towards the front door, “Are you staying over for dinner?”  
“Yes”  
“Cool.” With that Luce walks into the garage and Hope walks into the house.

  
A couple minutes later Hope hears Luce driving away.  
Hope first does the laundry. Afterwards she plays with the pup.  
_Maybe I should get a dog after the World Cup.  
  
_

She only has been busy prepping dinner for a minute or two when she receives a text from Kelley asking if they could FaceTime.  
Hope get her laptop and places it next to the vegetables.  
“Hi beautiful” Hope says once Kelley’s face appears on the screen.  
That is enough to put a big smile on Kelley’s face.  
“Hi yourself”  
“How was your day?” Hope asks while cutting the tomatoes  
“Just like most days, training was good. I ran into an old friend this afternoon. We went for a coffee…”. Hope interrupts her girlfriend “Kell, I need to go. Call you later?”  
Kelley tried to see who was coming into the house but before she could Hope has already ended the call.

“You are back early.”  
“Yeah, the store didn’t have the things I was looking for.”  
“What exactly are you planning on doing with my garage?”  
“Just to make it a bit more liveable.”

The Reign once again leaves town, this time for Kansas City and Hope once again stays behind in Seattle. She continues her training with Mac.

“So how is training? Confident to win Sunday’s game?”  
“It’s going to be a tough one, with Ashlyn in goal.”  
“Yeah, but with Ali out the Spirit miss a very important piece of their defense.”  
“That’s true but still. It will be a hard one.”  
“I’ll be rooting for you.”  
The defender is confused. Hope has been acting strange lately. Hope cuts their calls short from time to time, then there is also this mysterious Luce Hope does not really want to talk about it. Kelley decided (after a talk with Erin) to just ignore it until she gets back in Seattle. There is no sense over fighting over the phone.  
“What about the Reign? So you think they can win tonight?”  
“They succeeded without me last year so I don’t see why they would not be able to do so this year.”

  
Kelley could sense a hint of disappointment in her girlfriend’s voice “hi, you will be back out there in no time. Remember, you get to play in the World Cup.”  
Hope smiles, there are indeed bigger games coming up for her, “Let’s just hope Jill gives me at least one game to play.”  
“Not that I don’t think Ashlyn isn’t up for it but I think it will be the other way around. Jill trust your game, your experience. I think Jill will go for the safe option and chose you over Ashlyn.”

  
Hope didn’t really want to think about it. Off course she wanted to play every minute of the World Cup but at the same time she felt it would not be fair to Ashlyn. Ashlyn had stepped up while Hope was gone, she is a really good, hardworking keeper and deserves to play in the World Cup. Hope knows one thing for sure, it isn’t up to either of them to choose who gets to play, the only one who decides that is Jill.

“Let’s talk about something else. When are you coming home?”  
Kelley smiles, she likes the coming home part “Well Jim wants us here for another training and debriefing but I try to come home as soon as possible.”  
“Great, I can’t wait.”

With that they say goodbye, Kelley needing to prepare for training.  
Hope preparing for a swimming session with Luce.

 

Luce notes the keeper’s behavior had been better the last day and could not help to wonder if the nearing arrival of a certain defender has something to do with that.

Hope tries to sneak into the garage one time to see what Luce is working on but promptly she is send back out by Luce’s dog and her own cat. Those two seem to have become best friends in the last couple of days.

The next few days fly by. Hope sees her team loosing against FCKC and a few days later she watches Kelley’s team loose against the Spirit. The next day Hope drives to the airport to pick up Ashlyn. The keeper will be staying in Seattle for a few days before they leave for camp. Graeme arrived yesterday. The three of them will hopefully get in some good training sessions before they leave for California.

Hope gets back home after dropping Ashlyn at some old friend’s house. A small note is waiting for her.  
_I had to go back. Left some of my stuff in the garage, hope you don’t mind.  
Thanks for letting me stay.  
The M6 is yours to use.  
Good luck in Canada!!_

A bit disappointed Luce didn’t wait for her to come back before leaving … Hope did not hear someone walking into the house.

 

 

 


	40. Camp

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I did promise this update a couple days ago. But between studying for my finals, trying to pass them, sleeping, watching the USWNT game, there wasnt much time left for writing.  
> I do hope the 9k word count of this chapter makes up for it.

Hope is a bit bummed Luce left before Kelley arrived. It would have been that much easier to explain, now it might look like she is hiding something from Kelley.

Kelley thinks about using the “Honey I’m home” joke. But when she remembers Luce might be around she decides against it. On her way to the living room she peaks into the spare bedroom, it looks unused. Kelley silently drops her bags in the hallway and goes looking for her girlfriend. She spots Hope standing in the kitchen, it looks like she is reading something. Kelley tiptoes to Hope, when she gets closer she hears Hope something mumbling. The only thing she picked up is ‘waffles’  
“Are you going to bake waffles?” Kelley asks, suddenly excited about the thought of eating waffles and completely forgetting she planned on scaring Hope.  
Nevertheless Hope is surprised. The keeper jumps and quickly turns around. The … look is quickly replaced by a look of confusion and that one is even quicker replaced by one of the biggest smiles Kelley has seen.   
“Kell, What?…. How?..”  
Kelley chuckles at the keeper’s stammering instead of answering those question Kelley wraps her arms around the keeper and hugs her.

 

 

  
“So when are you going to start making those waffles?”  
“Waffles?”  
“Yeah, didn’t I hear you say waffles?”  
Hope remembers the waffle dough Luce left behind, Hope knows it is Luce’s way to apologize.  
Hope kisses Kelley before answering, why don’t you take a shower and by the time you come back the waffle iron will be warm.  
Kelley hurries to get her bag and runs upstairs.

 

Hope just can’t believe Kelley is here already, she thought her defender had to stay in NJ for some trainings before the coach was willing to release her.  
The keeper picks up the note she dropped when Kelley surprised her and puts it in her pocket.   
It has been a while since Hope has made the waffles so she hopes she will not screw this up, it looked like Kelley is really looking forward to eating those waffle. She sends Luce a quick text and sets the table. She takes the waffle iron, a note sticks on it ‘ _Make sure to iron is warm enough before baking the first one.’  
_ Hope smiles, thinking back at her first few tries.

  
 Kelley comes sliding on her socks into the kitchen “I’m ready”  
The keeper smiles, she missed having Kelley around.  


Hope is patiently waiting, Kelley not so patiently. She picks up her utensils and plate and puts them down next to Hope’s.  
She continues by sitting sideways on Hope’s lap and taking over the big fork.  
“Not yet babe.”  
“How can you see if it is time to take them out.”  
“Just wait and see.”  
Hope places a kiss on Kelley’s shoulder and takes the fork back.  
A minute or so later Hope opens the waffle iron just a little bit and peaks inside “Almost ready”  


Kelley holds her plate so Hope can put the waffles on it, it is a bit harder with Kelley sitting on her lap but she manages.   
Kelley divides them into two separate waffles, puts one on Hope’s plate and takes the other for herself.  


“Mmm these are soooo good.” Kelley says while taking another piece.  
Hope smiles, she knows the first ones are never the best ones so if Kelley likes this one already, she will certainly like the next ones.  
“Thanks”  
“Where did you learn to make this? They are really, really good.” Kelley says with her mouth full.  
“In Europe.”  
Before Kelley could say anything else Hope says “Why are you still sitting on my lap? Not that I mind but it is just a bit unpractical to eat.”  
Kelley shakes her head, _Ladies and gentlemen, Hope Solo, my ever so romantic girlfriend_ “Because I missed you” Kelley takes another piece of waffle and turns around “Now shut up and eat they are delicious.” and stuffs the piece of waffle into Hope’s mouth.  
 

While waiting for the next waffle to be ready Kelley says “So either we have a visitor who is hiding somewhere or you forgot to tell me something.”  
Hope looks confused  
“The car outside.”  
Hope decides to stick to Luce’s story “oh that, yeah don’t get too attached to it.”  
“Why not?”  
“Because it isn’t ours.”  
Kelley looks questioning.  
Hope doesn’t really know how to explain she sold her car because she needed the money, so she decides to copy Kelley’s moves from earlier and shoves a piece of waffle into Kelley’s mouth.  
Kelley briefly thinks about a food fight but the waffles are too delicious to spill them in a food fight.  


Not surprisingly Kelley ended up eating too many waffles.  
“Good thing Dawn isn’t going to find out about this.”  
“Otherwise I would have told it was your fault anyways.”  
“My fault?”  
“Yeah, if you hadn’t made these delicious waffles I would have never eaten them.”   
“Why don’t you lie down on the couch and chose whatever movie you want to see while I take care of the dishes.” Hope says while gently shoving Kelley off her lap.  
“You sure?” Kelley asks  
“Yes” Hope gives Kelley a kiss and steers her in the direction of the living room.

 

Hope is almost finished with the dishes when she feels two arms slip around her waist.   
Hope leans back into Kelley’s touch.  
The defender lets her hands wander underneath Hope’s shirt, she has to stand on the tip of her toes though to be able to kiss Hope’s neck.  
“Kelley I’m almost finished.”  
But Kelley doesn’t stop.  
_Fuck it_  Hope drops the plate back into the sink, soaking herself in water and soap.  
She turns around and picks up Kelley, Kelley quickly swings her legs around Hope.

 

 

Kelley wakes up, surprised to feel Hope snuggled into her.  
She regrets it is their last morning together, their flight to California leaves in a couple of hours But she is also looking forward to getting into camp. It will be the last camp before they fly to Canada. Canada, it still feels so unreal. A bit over a year ago Kelley thought her soccer career was over. When she didn’t really found a professional club, the Reign’s back-up team was her last shot to try to make it into the pro level.   

 

Kelley thinks back to these last couple of days in Seattle, they had flown by.  
Hope and Ashlyn have training every morning, in meantime Kelley either goes for a long run or works out at the gym. The two of them train at the Reign training fields (when the Reign isn’t training and no spectators are around). The two of them cannot really do much outside. With the World Cup just a couple a month away, there is too much attention on them. But they find plenty of other things to do that don’t require them leaving the house. Everything feels like it was before the Algarve Cup so Kelley forgets she has to talk with Hope about a couple of things.

 

Her right arm is numb (Hope is lying on top of it), Kelley pokes Hope’s ribs, Hope groins and moves a bit. Enough for Kelley to be able to retract her arm from underneath Hope’s body.

 

Instead of going for the gentle way and kiss her girlfriend away Kelley decides to go for a more playful method.  
Hope knew Kelley was about to try something. The thing with Kelley was that most of the times she got so excited about a joke she is about to do she cannot stop giggling … Like she is doing right now. Hope is doubting, should she let Kelley do whatever she is planning on doing or stop her before she is even able to start.  
  
“Don’t” Hope says while keeping her eyes shut and trying to grab Kelley.  
“What?” Kelley asks in surprise, she didn’t know the keeper was already awake.  
“Don’t even think about it.”  
“I’m not even doing anything.” Kelley says with a laugh.  
Hope opens her eyes and lunges forward, she has Kelley pinned down on her back in no time “But you were thinking about it.”  
Hope has Kelley on her back and sees Kelley eyes flickering between looking at Hope’s eyes and Hope’s lips  


Hope leans in and Kelley…, she is anticipating a kiss.

Kelley’s eyes fly open and she squirms trying to get from underneath Hope.  
“St.. op”  
“what was that? Can you say that again?” Hope keeps tickling.  
Kelley murms and squirms but she cannot get away from underneath Hope’s hold.  
“What were you planning on doing?” Hope asks and momentarily stops tickling Kelley.  
“I was going to get you coffee.”  
“wrong answer” and Hope starts another round of her tickling assault.  
“You want to try again?” Hope asks and once again stops tickling Kelley momentarily.    
“I can get you a coffee now.” Kelley tries and immediately prepares for another round of tickling.  
Hope pretends like she is going for another round of tickling. She quickly pecks Kelley on the lips and says  
“I’ll go make you a smoothie” while she steps off the bed.  
Before Hope makes it too far away from the bed Kelley jumps on Hope’s back.  
Hope almost falls but makes sure to hold Kelley and recovers pretty quickly.  
“Piggy back?” Kelley asks. The only answer she gets is laugh from Hope before the keeper makes her way down (carrying Kelley).  
  


 

“Tell me again why you take a flashlight with you.” Kelley asks while going over Hope’s bag making sure the keeper didn’t forgot anything.  
“To not keep my roommate awake when I read.” The keeper answers while going to Kelley’s bag, going the same for Kelley as Kelley is doing for her.  
“You do know your phone has a flashlight.”  
“I know but for some reason the cord is always just too short to be able to use your phone while it is plugged in.”  
Kelley didn’t really know what to say because Hope is right.  
Hope hands Kelley her spare flashlight   
“I don’t need one. I have my phone”  
“Trust me, it will come in handy.”  Hope says while putting the flashlight into Kelley’s bag.  


Hope carries their luggage downstairs while Kelley checks if all windows and doors are closed.  
By the time Kelley walks into the hallway Hope walks back inside the house “All set?”  
“All set.”  
Kelley takes her backpack and makes her way outside.  
Hope stops her,  
“What was that for?” Kelley asks once she has regained her breathing.  
“Because I wanted to kiss my girlfriend. And because I won’t really be able to kiss my girlfriend whenever I want in the next couple weeks.”  
The couple walks outside, Kelley slaps Hope’s ass.  
Hope looks at Kelley in surprise “What was that for?”  
“Just because I can.”   


 

Hope makes the quick drive to Kate’s places and drops off Kelley.   
The keeper arrives just in time back home to park her car in the garage and get back into her house before her ride arrives. Sera drives Hope, Ashlyn and Pinoe to the airport.  
On the drive Hope mainly listens to the conversation.   
They got to their gate without attracting too much of the attention.  
  
“I’m going to get some coffee, what do you guys want?”  
Ashlyn and Pinoe eagerly give their orders to the keeper, glad they won’t have to wait in line.  
While the two blonds talk about some concert Ashlyn went to, the keeper makes her way to the Starbucks.

 

“Look who I found waiting in line for a coffee.” Hope says when she is in earshot of her two teammates.  
Megan and Ashlyn look up.  
“Kelley!”  
Ashlyn wanted to ask what she was doing in Seattle but remembers just in time Kelley’s girlfriend lives in Seattle. _Guess her girlfriend didn’t make the move to NY._  
The four of them catch up while drinking their coffee.  
They are seated all over the plane. Although Kelley and Hope had bought their tickets together they opted to sit apart, it would look too suspicious. Kelley puts on her headphones and falls asleep, Hope reads some more. Pinoe watches some movie and Ashlyn reads the copy of TWLOHA Jamie sent her.

 

 

Hope is glad she is rooming with Carli again.   
The midfielder and her have numerous times been roommates so they have developed this system that works perfectly for them.  
Hope unpacks part of her luggage, checks her roster and decides to go for a jog. In hindsight that wasn’t a good idea. Pretty quickly she was spotted and some even followed her so the keeper returns to the hotel.

  


The amount of fans, reporters, photographers that are waiting near the training fields is unbelievable. When they are in group the main topic of questions is soccer but when Hope is alone most try to pry about details of what she was doing when she was paralyzed.  
Even when she manages to escape those reporters there are still the photographers US Soccer hired, following their every move. Capturing private moments, for the entire world to see, needless to say Hope starts to build up her walls rather quickly.  
   
Kelley notices the keeper pulling away. This camp they don’t have their secret moments together, no more …..

In the first days the majority of the team went out, twice. But unlike at the Algarve Cup, Hope didn’t join. It might have been because this is the last camp before the World Cup and Hope wanting to get as great as she possibly can be (meaning a lot of rest, sleep and training) or it might have been because of something else. Kelley remembers Hope was also acting weird when she was still in NJ. Kelley can hit herself for forgetting she was going to talk to Hope about this. She didn’t want to create a scene at camp but if things kept going like this Kelley will have to talk to Hope about it.

 

It only takes Hope a couple of trainings to walk into the conference room and say “Cheney can I talk to you for a sec?”  
The players look up, they hadn’t heard Hope talking like this in a long time. Well last time was probably last year in Brazil.  
Cheney stands up and follows the keeper outside. She knows she has been performing below her level but she didn’t expect the keeper to come at her like this, this publically.  
Hope doesn’t really know where to go. On her way to the lobby they come across one of the photographers US Soccer hired. Hope decides to go outside. The fans would have gone home for today and she could use some fresh air herself.

 

Apart from the “can I talk to you for a sec” Hope hasn’t said anything. The midfielder follows the keeper, not really sure where they are going to but she is glad it is not somewhere where their teammates can see them. Hope sits down on a bench and waits for Cheney to do the same.

“How are you?”  
After Hope’s earlier attitude, Cheney didn’t expect this.  
“I’m fine.”  
“Then why are you performing this bad?”  
Cheney knows the keeper is not one to beat around the bush but she didn’t expect her to speak so bluntly.  


She doesn’t really know how to answer this one, it has been a question that she has asked herself many times.  
But for some reason she doesn’t know it herself.   
“I don’t know.”  
“Did you see your doctor?”  
“Yes, I did.”  
They way Cheney tells it Hope knows it is no longer a big probability it has become a fact. It’s no longer a nightmare, it is real.

It is silent for a while.  
“Have you told Jill?”  
“No, no one can find out about this. You cannot tell anyone, not even Kelley.”  
Hope nods, she does know when this comes out she will be in bigger problems then she is right now with Kelley.  
“What about Jrue?”  
“He’s in New Orleans.”  
“You didn’t tell him?”  
“No”  
“Chen, you are his wife. He deserves to know.”  
“I can’t… I cannot tell him.”  
“Why not? The Jrue I know will be there for you, will help you.”  
“That’s it. He’s this sweet boy … he didn’t sign up for this…” a tear rolls down the midfielder’s cheek.  
Hope takes Cheney’s hands in her and looks her in the eye “I’m not married so I might not be the best one to say this but I know that if something like this happened to Kelley I would want to know. So I can be there for her, not because I have to but because I love her and….”  
“But I don’t want him to do so. I want him to be happy and ….” The midfielder can’t hold her emotions back anymore. Hope swings her arms around her friend and holds her close.   
  


Hope decides to cover for Cheney in the next couple of trainings/ matches but there is only so much a keeper can do to cover for a midfielder. Hope realizes she will have to guide her defenders into a position so they cover more ground, especially the center midfield. But she has to do it without them knowing they are covering for Cheney, it will be difficult. Especially with the current line-up.

   
Training is over and Hope walks, alone, away. Some reporter comes to her, looking for a juicy story. But unlucky for him Hope was not in the mood. First she ignores him but he keeps shouting questions at her. Hope turns around and spots Kelley. It is clear the defender wants to make her way to Hope but the keeper gives her a look and almost unnoticeable shakes her head no.  
Kelley is hurt and keeps walking but no in Hope’s direction, she changed her heading a bit and walks passed her.  
Before Hope can lash at him some US soccer body guard stands between Hope and the man, allowing her to walk away.

 

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Carli asks once they are out of sight from any potential witness.  
“Not now Carli” Hope says and walks past Carli.  
The midfielder pushes Hope back, for a moment she thinks Hope is going to punch her or slap her across the face. The keeper does neither, she just stands there.  
“I don’t know what is going on. And from the looks of it neither is Kelley so whatever is going on in your head, FIX IT.”  
With that the midfielder walks away and leaves her friend dumfounded behind.

 

 

Later that night part of the team is hanging out together. Hope would have preferred to be in her room but Carli dragged her out. The keeper settles for reading a book at the other side of the room.

“Kelley, are we finally going to see your girlfriend when she comes to Canada.”  
Kelley is taken by surprise with this question.   
“She is going to come?” Alex joins in on the conversation.  
Kelley takes a deep breath before replying loud enough so everyone in the room can hear her but not too loud to seem suspicious “ Actually I don’t care. She can do whatever she wants to do.”  
The girls look at each other, although Kelley has always been very private about her relationship with the mystery women, they had this perception of them being in a relationship without too many fights.  
“Is everything all right between you two?”  
“There is not much to talk about. She has been ignoring and blocked me out while I have no idea what I did wrong.” Hurt evident in her voice.

 

Hope knows she is the cause f this hurt . But right now she has so many things going on in her head she doesn’t know where to start. Although none of those have an influence on her game, she knows she will have to take care of each single thing before the world cup starts.

“You better fix this or …” Carli says to Hope but the keeper walks out of the room before Carli can finish her sentence.  
Hope walks out of the room and pushes one of the photographers aside while walking passed them.

 

 

“Maybe all those O’Solo posts on the internet have something to do with it.’  
“O’What?”  
“O’Solo. That is how the fans call you and Hope” To prove her right Pinoe pulls out her phone.  
They laugh at all the pictures but more so with the comments. But Pinoe isn’t paying attention to them, she is watching her former Seattle Reign teammate. She hoped Kelley would show a special reaction to it but just as when Pinoe was at her place, the defender seems to be an expert in that field of expertise. Kelley looks at the pictures, most of them were from the two of them at trainings, matches but there were also a few from the day Hope picked Kelley up from the airport, luckily it were only pictures with one of them in it so they couldn’t really prove Hope was there for Kelley.

“I don’t think she is one to look at these kind of sites.” Kelley says, hurt still evident in her voice.

Kelley isn’t one to check this kind of sites, she used to in college but now she is way too busy. And Hope, she would never go on sites like this one.

After seeing these pictures Kelley starts to connect the dots. It is highly unlikely Hope has seen these pictures or comments and it is not the main reason (because Hope was also acting different when Kelley was still in NJ) Kelley does know that the questions about the time she was paralyzed are bothering Hope and that is probably the main reason why she is blocking everyone out. It is not like she didn’t share stories of that time. She just shared them with people that are genuine interested in the  story, people who have experienced something similar. Not sites like TMZ that are just looking for a juice story to sell.

 

 

 

15 minutes later Hope paddles out into the ocean.  
Hope doesn’t really want to surf, she just wants to escape it all.  
After being on the water for a while she starts to wonder if she may have made the wrong decision by trying to keep her and Kelley’s relationship a secret. Maybe it would have been better if they had been upfront with it from the beginning.

Hope looks up, the sky isn’t that clear, but Hope still can make out some constellations.  
She smiles. If it wasn’t for Kelley this would never been a place for her to clear her mind.  
Not because she doesn’t love the ocean she just never imagined herself drifting around on a surfboard. Alone in the ocean, no teammates, no reporters, no media around. It is just her and the waves and Hope loves it.

  
“Did I do the wrong thing?” Hope says out loud a few minutes later.  
“Keeping it a secret?’  
“Uhum..”  
“I don’t really think I’m the best person to ask that question to”  
Hope smiles “Maybe you are.”  
“But it is different, it’s easier. Claire doesn’t play for this team.”  
It is silent for a while, both women are not really good in this stuff.  
“I don’t think you should make it public now. It might cause too big of a distraction or at least that is what the press will say. And after all the relationship is between you and Kelley and not between You, Kelley and the entire world.”  
Hope wants to react but before she can the midfielder says “But like I said you are not alone in this relationship,  you have to talk to her. Even when your mind is a mess and have no idea where to begin.”  
“I know but that’s also kind of the reason why I came out here.”  
“You do know that you can go to Kelley for things like that, she might not always look like that but she is a good listener and she is your girlfriend after all.”

Hope nods absentmindedly, she knows the midfielder is right.

Tobin catches some waves while Hope mainly drifts around.  
After a while Hope starts getting cold and decides it would be better if the both of them go back.  
On the way back Hope asks Tobin about Claire.

 

 

“It was never about you”  
Kelley turns around, confused and surprised  
“I didn’t meant to shut you out. It’s just …. There were so many things going around in my head … and I just, I…” Hope trails off.  
“But you did. You did block me out.”  
Hope had planned what she was going to say but the look in Kelley’s eyes and the way she looks at Hope make her forget everything she planned to say.  
“Ever since Luce came around you have been acting different.”  
Hope thinks for a moment, in the Algarve everything was all right she then remembers Kelley doesn’t know she saw Luce in Portugal.

“Who is she? You never told me about her and when I asked the impression I had after your answer is that she is someone you barely know. I had to hear from Laura that Luce is the one who took care after you were released out of the hospital. You never mentioned her in the next week and it was only because I found out by accident that she was still at our place that you had to tell me.”  
The keeper didn’t know Kelley had called Laura to check up on her.   
“Do you have somewhere were you soon need to be?”  
“No, why?”  
“Because I need more than five minutes to tell Luce’s story.”

  


 

 

A whole while later a smiling Kelley makes her way back to her room. She is walking up the stairs when her phone rings. Kelley looks at the caller’s id and looks confused “You do know we just talked for over half an hour.”  
“I know. I just wanted to say that I love you and that I miss you already.”  
Kelley smiles _Dork_ “I love you too”  
“You do?” Hope asks.  
Kelley chuckles “Yes I do. But you know that already.”  
“I do, but it doesn’t hurt to hear you say those words again.”  
Kelley laughs, sometimes it is hard to believe her girlfriend and icy Hope Solo are one and the same person. Unbeknownst to Kelley someone was walking behind her and witnessed this little moment.

  


 

The next day the team travels North for their friendly against Ireland.  
Maybe it is because they are near Stanford but whatever it is, Kelley seems to be in a better mood than she was yesterday.   
Kelley is rooming this time with Syd. She still is angry at the striker for the stunt she pulled in Seattle. She could have hurt Hope real bad if it wasn’t for the protective gear Hope was wearing. But she promised Hope to let it go so she tried to forget about it.

Kelley and Christen visit their old stamping ground.  
It is also the first time Kelley feels like Christen is the Christen she knew at Stanford.   
Kelley would have loved to take Hope along but she knows that is not possible right now. She decides she will show Hope another time (after the world cup)

 

 

May 9th

The team has pre-game team dinner. Kelley and Hope sit with Ali, Carli, Meghan, Cheney, Alyssa and Christen.  
They have almost finished dinner when Jill walks to the middle.  
“All right ladies. You have been working hard so I want to mix things up a little bit. I brought in a guest speaker, it is someone pretty special. I’d like you to give them a big welcoming when they come through that door. If you could just turn and face the door ….”    


“SUPRIIIIISEE”  
Once over the shock Ali quickly gets up to greet her mom. Some other girls stand up looking for their mom, others stay seated and wonder what Ali’s mother might speak about before realizing there is no guest speaker.

 

 

“Mom?” Hope says in surprise and hurries to her mother. While she hugs her mother she spots her grandmother slowly making her way into the room.  
After hugging her mother Hope steps aside so Judy can hug Carli. It is a difficult moment for Carli but with the cameras recording she has to keep herself together. She hugs the woman a bit tighter and a bit longer than one would normally hug a friend’s mom.

 

In the time Kelley has known Hope, the keeper barely spoke about her family. Kelley didn’t really know what she had expected, but certainly not this.   
Kelley spots her own mother and quickly stands up to hug her.  
She was so bummed when her mother called last moth telling her she couldn’t make it to NJ after all . She had been looking forward to show off her new place and to play with her mom in the stands (just like old times), fearing she would not be able to see her mom before the world cup Kelley. Shortly after Christen and her mom join them. Karen is glad she knows at least a few of the other moms.   


Hope stays close to Carli, Ali and Deb join the conversation not that much later. The moms talk about how FOX approached them and told them about the surprised they were planning to do. Hope tries to makes eye contact with Kelley (and Karen) in meantime. The keeper knows it will probably take a while before she can give Karen the appropriate welcoming. A few girls stay in the dining room with their mom, others go to their room or outside to find a calmer place.  
  


 

 

Later that day.

“Are you ok?”  
“Yeah I am. It’s just times like this make me wonder, make me wonder how it feels to have your mom next to you on the pitch.”  
Hope thinks quickly, “I know it is not the same but my grandmother would be honored to walk next to you on the pitch. Carli views Hope’s mom and grandmother as family. “I would love that.”  
Hope gives Carli a small smile.  
The keeper

 

“If you ever want to talk about it I’m here.”  
“What is there to talk about. I barely remember her. …” Carli trails off, ….  
Hope waits for Carli to continue.

“I’m afraid there will be a moment where I no longer remember her, remember the sound of her voice, .. “  
Hope is silent for a moment. She feel the same (for her father), difference is that she had known her father for (almost) 30 years. At that time she believed, she was convinced it was too early to live without a father. But when she came into camp and faced her best friend, who lost her mother way too early, she was grateful she got to know her father as long as she did. Although in hindsight it looks like she didn’t know her father that well.   
“I’m not one who should give you advice on this but I’ll try anyway. You will forget a lot of things but certain important will always stay with you. Maybe it is just the way she said your name or the way she hugged you when she dropped you off at kindergarten. As long as you think about her, she will never be forgotten.”

 

 

The next morning, most of the girls have their mother sitting next to them at breakfast. Kelley and her mom are seated facing Tobin and Cindy. The moms are talking about some memory they have from a certain event in California (when Tobin and Kelley were living together), Tobin tries desperately to get Kelley involved into the conversation so the two of them can convince their moms otherwise.  
Kelley wonders where Carli’s mom is.  
She did notice the interaction between Carli and Hope’s mom.   
Since most of the girls will probably be hanging around with their mom, Kelley figured they should do something together to make Carli forget she has no family here.  


“Beach volleyball tournament after breakfast.” Kelley announces and the girls happily join in on the tournament.   
Jill and the other staff members aren’t too happy about this. They know how competitive the girls can be.  
“But remember girls, it’s not a competition. We do not want any injuries.”  


The game starts very friendly. Everyone is having a blast  and Kelley only gets a moment distracted by Hope taking off her shirt (it’s too hot).  
The game gets a bit more competitive but it remains friendly, there is a lot of laughing.  
The coaching staff is relieved to see everyone walking away from the game without injuries.  
Hope makes a mental not to thank the coach for leading away the reporters so they could play these games without the eyes of the world on them.  
Hope, Carli, Tobin and Cheney stay  behind to help Kelley clean up.   
  
  
“Where was the game for?” Hope asks when she is sure no one is around  
“You didn’t enjoyed it?”   
“I loved it.” Hope replies while swinging her arms around Kelley from behind.  
Kelley leans back before answering “Well then, there is your answer”  she turns around, places a kiss on Hope’s cheek and takes off.  
Hope looks at her girlfriend running away and smiles. She notices Carli standing next to her with a smirk on her face  
“What?”  
Carli laughs. “Nothing, it is still weird seeing you like this.”  
Hope looks questioning at her friend.  
“In a good way. I’m just not yet used to love sick puppy Hope.”  
Hope swings her arm over Carli’s shoulder and says “Come on, there is still a 3 mile run waiting for us.”  


Kelley takes her mom around the city. Normally Karen would have drunk the coffee inside but Kelley manages to persuade her to drink it outside at the pier. Not only does she prefer being closer to the ocean, she was also pretty sure that café was full of journalists. And a room full of journalists is the last place on earth where she wants to have a private conversation with her mom.

 

 

“So how have you and Hope been going? I’m sure it is hard, with the team and all the journalists.” Karen had heard some stories from Erin and she wanted to make sure that Hope is treating her little girl in the right way.  
Kelley thinks back about the past couple of weeks, they did have had some more trouble than before but everything seemed fine now “I think we are good. Sometimes it is hard. It’s hard to not be able to cuddle when we are watching a film with the team, or just hugging Hope when she needed some reassurance (or just for fun) and sometimes the keeper forgets she has someone, apart from Carli, to whom she can talk freely. But then there are also these small moments like after the beach volleyball tournament and it is just worth it.”  
Karen smiles. Kelley continuous by telling what pulled off for one last date back in Seattle (without getting noticed by the (social) media.)  
It is silent for a while, Kelley watching a brave surfer taking on the pretty rough sea.  
“Is she coming with you after the Mexico game?”  
“No. I asked if she wanted to come along but she said something , about wanting for me to be able to have some time with my family or something like that. She also mentioned that we will see each other a lot in Canada so I guess she just wanted me to spend some time with you guys.”  
although  Karen wants to spend some more time with her daughter’s girlfriend to get to know her better she also likes the idea of just having Kelley in her house again for a week.

 

By the time Kelley makes it back to the room Syd has already left.  
Hope walks in and sits on Kelley’s bed.  
After finishing packing Kelley sits down facing Hope.  
Hope gently rubs Kelley’s ankle and asks “How is your ankle?”  
“It feels fine.”  
“Remember to get it properly taped in.”  
Last time Kelley kind of was running late so she didn’t have time for getting her ankle taped  in. Instead of asking the medical staff to do it on the bench Kelley just played without, resulting in her ankle throbbing even more.

Hope doesn’t want to come over as over protective / someone who worries too much so after this she switches the topic by asking about Karen.  
On their way to the bus Kelley tells Hope parts of the conversation she had with her mom earlier.

 

The moms ride along on the one nation one team bus.  
They are surprised by the amount of people waiting (and screaming)  for their daughters.  


The moms sits in the stands watching their girls warm up. Kelley’s mom talks with the few mothers she knows. She catches up with Tobin’s mom and gets to know some the others. Although it is hard from time to time to understand what the other is saying (lot of noise, screaming …).

 

The girls have finished their warming up and go back inside.  
Hope had come back in a few minutes earlier, she always does.  
By the time the team comes into the locker room she has put on the protective braces. No one noticed though, well except maybe for Carli and Becky who had their hands on Hope’s back in the huddle. And even then, since the brace doesn’t cover her entire back they would have had to place their hands directly on top of Hope’s spinal cord to be able to feel it.  
  
“All right girls. Let’s not forgot this still is an important game, but also have fun out there today.” Jill looks around “Now go out there and make your mom proud!”  
Each and every girl high fives the trainers before joining their waiting moms.  
Kelley tries to get the limb out of her walking while stepping with her mom in the tunnel.  
  
“Can you always hear them this loud?”  
Hope listens for a moment “Not in the beginning but lately, yes.”  
She looks back but Kelley stands too far behind to be able to see her.  
They talk some more but Hope’s mind is already focused in the task for hand. Seconds later, both teams walk onto the pitch. It takes a while before the entire USWNT WWC squad plus moms has taken its place on the pitch.

They start calling off the player’s names. When Kelley’s name is called she quickly hugs and kisses her mom on the cheek before waiving to the crowd. Karen also waves, she doesn’t really know why but she waives to the crowd. The announcer continues and Karen looks at all the people that came to watch the team play. She notices the smile on her daughter’s lips when Hope’s name is called. The national anthem is played and although it has always been a strong symbol for Karen, today it just feels unbelievable. 

The entire group, players and their moms gather for a picture. It takes a while before everyone is in position but eventually they hear one of the US Soccer crew telling them the pictures have been taken. She hugs Kelley one last time before she follows the other mothers off the pitch. Karen walks next to Cindy.   
Although Kelley isn’t part of the starting eleven Karen is nervous, it will be the first time she sees her daughter play for the national team.

 

The atmosphere is nowhere near anything she has ever experienced, when Pinoe nearly scores the opening goal in the second minute Karen is just in awe , every time the USWNT comes close to scoring, you can feel the entire atmosphere in the stadium change.

Meanwhile on the pitch. Hope is directing her backline, although the ball is for the bigger part on the Irish side of the pitch they have to stay focused and be prepared for a fast counter attack. Hope pays extra attention on Lauren’s play so she can steer her defenders in the right direction, covering for Cheney.   
Hope stands at the top of the box, she is surprised of Cheney’s bad corner kick. The game had only been going on for a couple minutes so Hope knew Cheney still should be all right. Hope makes a mental note to get Cheney to talk someone who knows more about it. She should have gone to a specialist back in Seattle but with all the attention on her medical activities, Hope didn’t think that would be a good idea.

  
Since the ball doesn’t really  come near her Hope has the perfect opportunity to analyze the play as it is going. She notices Ali makes longer runs with the ball, she needs more touches than usually to send the ball away. Abby misses an opportunity in the 8th minute, it does earn them another CK.  
Press takes on a couple defenders later but shoots her shot wide.  
The US gets a lot of corner kicks. In the 24th minute Cheney once again takes a bad corner kick.   
By now Hope stands at the top of her box. She watches the Iris goalkeeper making a lot of saves, some of them  looked rather spectacular.

 

The corner kick in the 41th minute changes everything.  
The Irish number 30 almost scores an own goal, but luckily for her (and unlucky for her teammate), the ball hits another teammate in the face so it doesn’t go over the line.  
The goalkeeper is distracted for a moment while looking her fallen teammate, since the referee hasn’t blown the whistle the play continues and Abby shoots the ball into goal. Before the halftime whistle is blown Abby manages to flicker another one in, off an assist from Carli.

The game ends in a 3-0 win for the US.  
Hope shakes, like everyone else, the other players hands. When she comes across Kelley she quickly asks if everything is all right, Kelley took a hard hit around the 70th minute. Most of the players quickly walk towards their mom after shaking their opponents’ hands.

 

 

After the game.

“So who is the lucky one?”  
Hope looks questioning at her mom.  
“Come on Hope, I know you good enough to know when my daughter is in love.”  
This really surprise Hope, she didn’t know she was that obvious. Carli did tell her a few times but Hope never believed it.  
“Who do you think it is?”  
“Judging from the look in your eyes when she walked by, or the smile that appeared on your face when she laughs, I think it’s the number 5”  
A blush creeps onto her cheeks.  
“Since when?”  


Judy is surprised by this, after Hope got paralyzed the keeper did everything in her power to keep them away. She didn’t want them to see her like that.

Hope stops talking for a while trying to figure out what is going through her mom’s head.  
Judy notices the look in Hope’s eyes changes.  


“I don’t care if the person that makes you this happy is a woman or a man, as long as she/he makes you happy and treats you right. I’m so proud of you. I’m not only talking about you coming back from your injury but I’m so proud of the woman you have become. The woman I hope more people will get a chance to see.”  
Hope engulfs her mother in a hug “Thank you mom.”

“So when are you two coming by for dinner?” Judy asks  
“Well I think that might take a while. After the Mexico game we do have a week off but Kelley goes back to Georgia to spent some time with her family before the World Cup. So you’ll probably have to wait till after the World Cup. And even then … with her playing in NJ it won’t be an easy fit …….”  
Judy nods, “let me know”  
“We’ll do.”  


 

 

 

 

Hope had been talking with her grandma for a while when she spotted Alex.   
Grandma Alice noticed the worried look on her granddaughters face “Go”  
“But what about …”  
Alice interrupts her granddaughter “Go”.

 

Although Alex has a ball in her hands there is no way she is going to endanger her coming back even more by kicking the ball with her injured leg.  
“You’ll get there”  
The striker looks up in surprise, she didn’t think anyone else would be out here now.  
“Hope”  
The keeper takes over the ball and throws from one hand too another and back.  
“How is your knee?”  
“I have tried everything, rehab, I swam, I rested I …it is just not getting better.”  
“I had been able to move my legs before the barbecue at Abby’s but then I don’t really know what happened but I ended up in a coma in the hospital.”  
This shocks the striker, she never knew about this.  
Hope continues “When I woke up a few days later, the feeling in my legs once again disappeared. I was devastated. The time I spent in the hospital I was convinced I would never walk again. I thought I lost my chance to walk again but then I got back home and a met up with a couple friends, they were going to this trip to DC  followed by two other cities before ending up in Portland. They wanted me to come with them but I didn’t want to hold them back so I didn’t go. While they were gone I trained like crazy, I did everything in hopes I would get the feeling in my legs back by the time they arrive back in Seattle. By the time they came back I still couldn’t feel or move my legs. Then one morning I woke up and could feel the sheets. I’m not trying to tell you you should just go to bed and hope to wake up one morning and your knee will be fine. I’m saying that you cannot rush things, you can do as much exercises, therapy and other things as you want, in the end your body has its own rhythm and it will be healed when it is ready.”

Alex suddenly fees guilty. Here she is sobbing about her knee while others face so many more difficulties.  
“You have the right to be as frustrated about your knee as I was about my legs.” Hope says, sensing the guilt Alex suddenly feels.  


 

 

 

 

 

The next morning. Kelley is out in the water, sitting on her surfboard. She and Tobin had been going on these early morning surfing session to get away from all the buzz for a while.  
She has caught a few waves before she spotting another surfer making their way to the water. Tobin is not that much further, catching a wave.  
  
The surfer paddles closer and Kelley recognizes the surfer.  
“What are you doing here?”  
“Surfing. What else” Hope turns around and paddles to catch the next wave.  
Kelley looks at her girlfriend although Hope is not that good of a surfer but it does look like she has fun and it gives Kelley an opportunity to laugh.   


Some time goes by,

Not long after Hope finishes her ride Tobin jumps next to her into the water.  
“Way to go Solo”  
“You are not too bad yourself Heath.”  
Tobin smiles, it is nice to see her friend this carefree and happy again.   
The two sit on their board in silence for a moment, both women not feeling the need to say anything.  
Kelley sneaks up from behind, she flips Hope’s board and quickly does the same with Tobin’s. By the time those two resurface she is already paddling away, they can hear her laugh though.

 

A voice from above them says “I’m not invited to the party?”  
The two are still in the water and look up, Tobin is the first on to get back on her board.  
“Solo, what are you doing here?” The other keeper lets out in surprise “I didn’t know you surf.”  
“Well it is a good way to train my legs and back and it also gives me an opportunity to …”  
“You know that only counts if you actually ride a wave and not just lying on your board.” Kelley interrupts,  shouting from a few yards away.  
Hope glares at the defender and quickly paddles further away from the shore.  
Hope is nowhere near the level of Ashlyn but still, she manages to ride a couple waves.

The four of them continue to surf. Hope is the first one to slow down, she paddles back out and sits down on her board, with her legs in the water.   
The cool water streams alongside her legs. Hope takes a moment to be grateful. In the past year, she got to walk again, she met Kelley and has fallen in love with her, she has made it onto the world cup roster …..  


The three others notice..  
“Is she ok?” Ashlyn asks  
“Yeah she is. I think she just has a sheets moment.” Tobin answers.  
“Sheets moment?” Ashlyn asks confused  
“Yeah, sheet moment.” Tobin repeats before paddling away.   
Alex wasn’t the only one who got to hear that story.  
The four walk back to the hotel not that much later.  


On her way to breakfast Kelley spots her mom and girlfriend talking. She wonders what those two might be talking about but instead of finding out she follows the group into the breakfast room. Not before casting one more look at two of the most important women in her life.

 

 After breakfast the girls say goodbye to their moms. Although everyone would have wanted some more time with their mom. They all are glad they got a chance to see them in the pre-world cup madness.  
Judy passes by Carli and whispers something in the midfielder’s ear that Hope doesn’t quiet catch.  
The midfielder smiles and Hope smiles too, knowing whatever her mom said, it must have been something good.

 

 

 

Game day.

 

 

“Just one more thing. Could all of you hand over your phones. One of the staff discovered a bug app on their phone and Jill asked me to check yours, we want to make sure yours aren’t contaminated either.”  
Most girls are a bit apprehensive to give their phone to the new guy.

Hope and Kelley look at each other.  
They both quickly scan through it and delete all compromising files (pictures, texts…).

Kelley suddenly aware of the ridiculous amount of pictures she had snapped from a sleeping Hope or when the keeper was acting ridiculous. She has also a lot of pictures of the two of them she doesn’t want to lose so Kelley stands up and walks away from the tech guy, hoping it will buy her a bit more time. She sits down next to Christen while her photos are being copied into a secure cloud. She knows they will probably just check for bugs and not actually go through all her files, she just wanted to be sure. Christen is surprised to see her Stanford friend next to her. Ever since Kelley joined the team the two didn’t really have hung out together. The striker plans to change that. Kelley hands over her phone and follows the rest of the team into the tunnel. Normally the subs go to the bench before the starters walk out of the tunnel. But since this game is part of their send-off series, the subs walk with the starters onto the pitch and also get their name called before the game. The team is glad they get the opportunity to play here, for their fans butt at the same time they just want to get it over with and get the world cup started.

 

The  ball flies into the box, it resembles one of the plays in the Norway game. And just as in the Norway game Hope rushes to the top of the box to catch it. In the Norway game the ball slipped through Hope’s hands, only a block from Ali prevented the ball from being kicked into the net. Kelley holds her breath, this time a lot more bodies will be involved in the play. Hope jumps and ‘flies’ through traffic catching the ball. Hope makes a hard landing on her back. Kelley and the others hold their breath for a moment but Hope is fast back up. The crowd jumps on their feet to celebrate the save.

 

Commentators POV:

“Hope Solo not backing away from hard play”  
“Luckily she didn’t get injured in the play”

“Remember earlier in the year Hope came for a ball like that (against Norway)? This time Hope does get it, you can see she is sharper than she was earlier this year”

“She basically said this is my territory I’m going to claim anything in here, forwards beware.”

 

 

Both teams score in the first half. Hope doubts herself, maybe she should not have gotten off her line for that free kick. But after her talk with the GK coach Hope is once again ready to fight for another 45 minutes to keep the ball out of her net. Not only does Hope come back stronger in the second part of the game, so does the rest of the team. The USWNT manage to scores four more times in the second half.

 

After the game. The players are so excited with their 5-1 over Mexico they don’t notice they are stepping in a bus that is not theirs. The one nation, one team bus stands around the corner. While the One Nation one team bus drives passed the fans another bus drives, unnoticed, the other way.


	41. Headlines

Aaron finishes up on some of his paperwork.  
With the girls having a week off before they come back together in NY he would like to brief them tonight om what is going to happen in NY.

His alarm goes off when he is writing down some last thoughts.  
On his way to the dining room he comes across Brad. The two of them walk together while discussing some article that is going to come out.  
When the two of them approach the dining room they note it is unusual silent.  
Having been the subject of the team’s jokes numerous times, the two men walk cautiously into the dining room.  
It is empty. They look around to make sure no one is hidden. They come up empty. Brad even checks for a hidden camera but he couldn’t find one. The two of them sit down and are joined by some other US Soccer personnel. The group talks and waits to see if the others are going to show up or not.

The dinner is served and it is still just them, no coaching staff, no players.  
“Should we call them?”  
“No, they might have gone for a pizza. Let’s eat dinner and see afterwards.”  
Since everyone is hungry they all agree and start eating.  
During dinner they discuss some business.

Aaron sends Jill a text while walking back to his room to get his equipment.  
He prepares the conference room for tonight’s briefing and sends texts to all the girls letting them know they are expect at the conference room in 20 minutes. He wonders why Jill hasn’t replied but his attention is diverted when one of his staff calls him.  
15 minutes later Brad walks in the room “I just wanted to let you know that your pizza theory isn’t really correct. The bus is parked in the parking lot and according to the clerk. It has been since before dinner.”  
Aaron panics he takes out his phone and calls Jill but it goes straight to voicemail. He notices none of the girls have replied to his text. It isn’t unusual for one or two of them to not reply but for all of them to remain silent, that is almost impossible. He calls some of the girls, starting with the ones that are glued to their phone(except for when they are on the pitch). But time after time he reaches voicemail.

He doesn’t really know what to do. He checks Jill’s room, all of her stuff is still there. He checks the players’ rooms, all of their belongings are still there. _Maybe they just went out celebrating._

The sun has already gone under and still no word of the squad. Aaron has already sent one of his staff back to the stadium to see if by any chance the team is still there. But according to the stadium’s staff the USWNT left hours ago.  


Aaron’s phone rings, he grabs it quickly hoping it would be Jill or one of the girls. It isn’t.  
“Hello”  
“Aaron, is Jill with you?”  
“Why?”  
“I have called her a few times but it keeps going to voicemail.”  
“Uhum”  
“Can you pass her the phone? I need to talk to her.”  
Aaron takes a few breathes before saying “I can’t”  
“What? Aaron just hand her the phone.”  
“I can’t do that because I don’t know where she is.”  
It is silent for a second “What do you mean?”  
“I don’t know where Jill, the rest of the coaching staff or any of the players are.”  
Sunil didn’t really get what Aaron is pointing at.  
So Aaron continues “The team never came back from the stadium. The bus is parked outside the hotel but there is no sign of the coaching staff or players.”  
Sunil is shocked, this is one of his worst nightmares.  
“All right, go over it again. Begin after the game.”  


After the call with Sunil, Aaron asks his staff to look on social media if any of the players has posted something or if maybe a fan has taken a picture of them after they left the stadium. Not long after he gets a text from Sunil letting him know the FBI is on its way but that for now everything is going to be kept under covers.

 

The next morning Aaron feels terrible. He hadn’t slept much and had been on constant alert. But no news. At  breakfast he notices that the others don’t look much better. The two FBI agents that arrived last night seemed to have been working all night. They looked at the footage from outside the stadium, but for some reason the security cameras were switched off at the time of the squad walking out the stadium.  
They check the hotel’s footage but whoever drove the bus knew where the cameras are placed. The person is wearing a baseball cap and doesn’t face any of the camera’s. It does tell the agents that the squad never made it back to the hotel so whatever happened, it must have happened at the stadium.

 

Not long after breakfast the first media and fans start showing up at the training fields, hoping to see the players one last time before they leave. In the beginning they think the team might have postponed the training a bit. But regulars know that by now someone must have shown up. Around 3 pm people start to think the USWNT might have gone home already and a lot of fans have given up. A few reporters go to a nearby coffee shop. Some fans write about their disappointed on social media. Eventually everyone leaves. By the evening the first rumors of a ‘disappearing’ start showing up.

 

Aaron wakes up to a breaking news notification: _USWNT WWC squad vanished after last game. According to witnesses the team never reach their hotel after the 5-1 win over Mexico.  
He is immediately awake_.  After a short call with Sunil, Aaron calls up a few reporters he has become ‘friends’ with over the last couple of years. Another BN notification shows up minutes later: _According to US Soccer USWNT squad isn’t missing but is in training._

But on social media the damage is already done. The fans over-analyzing the lack of social media activity of any of the players after the match. Journalists from all over the country go looking for the secret training spot. They checked all the known US Soccer facilities and checked training facilities from other teams. But no sign of any of the players.

Headlines like; _US Women National Team vanishes after game against Mexico,_ appear in newspapers and on news sites. Journalists try to get a hold of someone within the US Soccer federation, but apart from Aaron’s statement nothing goes out. One manages to get a hold of Sunil but all he said is “The USWNT is in its final preparation phase for the World Cup. That’s all I can say at the moment.”

 

After that things calm down a bit. The missing of the USWNT moves to the back and life goes on. At least for the people that don’t follow the USWNT. The people that do follow scan off social media, have a search of their own and are on the constant look out for the USWNT but no sign of them. Some fan claims to have hear Syd and Alex complaining about having to hand over their phone to the new guy.

 

2 days later:  
Still no news of USWNT world cup squad.  
We have been trying to get a hold of any family members but they all referred us to the US Soccer Federation.  
  
_What do we know of the disappearance?_  
Before the game some mysterious guy pretended to be on the technical staff and asked them to give their phones. We don’t know what reason he gave them but he probably used the ‘checking for bugging apps’ excuse. No sign of those phones either.  
The security cameras at the stadium have been tempered with but from the pictures fans took it seems like the players were on the bus.  
The bus arrived at the hotel without any of the players and another driver stepped out.  
No sign of life from any of the missing since the game.  
All the player’s stuff was left behind at the hotel. So it is unlikely they planned this disappearing act.   
  


 

Another day later:  
Inside source tells us the federation has no clue where the women are.  
US SOCCER filed a missing person (actually missing 30 people) report the evening of their disappearance.  


The next day journalist report family members all coming together at the place their daughters/ sisters/ … last have been seen. But they all reply with “no comment” when asked a question.

 

 

Game Day USA vs South-Korea.  


“The members of the USWNT WWC squad are supposed to play a game later tonight against South Korea. But no word has been heard of them since the game against Mexico, almost two weeks ago. US Soccer has called up a back-up squad in case the original USWNT doesn’t show up. We have Heather Mitts, former USWNT member and friends with a lot of the missing players, with us today.”  
Reporter turns to Heather.  
“What can you tell us about the entire situation?”  
“I have been trying to get some inside information but US Soccer is not giving much information at this stage. The likelihood of the players showing up at tonight’s game isn’t big.” _And even if they show up, in what condition will they be?_

  
“Do you have any idea where they are.”  
“If I had don’t you think I wouldn’t have said something by now.” Heather replies a bit pissed off. For the most they were just missing an idol. But Heather was missing a lot of her best friends, girls she had spent so much time with in the last couple of years.  
The reporter seems to realize that was the wrong question to ask so she switches the subject back to tonight’s game.

  
“If the squad returns before the beginning of the tournament do you play them or do you take the back-up squad?”  
“That depends … If I was in charge I would take the original squad. They have been training so long for this. They know each other better than the back-up squad members know each other. They have played so many more hours together. And maybe whatever they are going through is going to get them even closer together. They might come back stronger and an even tighter team then they were before.” _That if is they are still alive_ , flashed through Mittsy’s head but she is not going to say so on national television. _Just keep smiling._  
“What do you think of tonight’s match?”  
“I hope the squad shows up but I know the others are ready for this. They haven’t really played together but they all passed through the system so they will do good.” Heather finishes that sentence with a smile.  
One last question, “Are you going to the stadium tonight?”  
“Yes I am. I got to support the team.”  
Both women smile “Thank you Heather for coming by and I we are all rooting for the USA tonight.”  
“Thanks for having me.”

 


	42. Game day

Kelley knows Hope is still pissed for letting in that goal in the first half so she quickly makes her way and grabs Hope at the shoulders.  
Before Hope can process what Kelley is saying to her the defender is already long gone. Hope does turn around to ask for can clarification and sees the defender walking away so she shrugs and continues fidgeting with the straps of her gloves.

 

Meanwhile in Vancouver.   
Game recap with Fox.

“What a game.”  
“Indeed, what a game. It took the usa a while to get into the game, luckily Hope was there to keep them in the game. But once they got into the game they were like an entirely different team than the team we got used to see these past few months. No more sending the ball forward and hoping someone would be at the end of it and more quick passing. ”  
“I agree, it looked like the Americans were one team, instead of 11 players. They had a great vision, knowing where their teammates were at all time and you could see them helping each other out. Leroux dropping all the way back to help out Holiday.”  


“I also think it was a smart move to put O’Hara in, she is much more adequate to rival the pace of Lisa Da vanna than Meghan Klingenberg. I have had the opportunity to train with Kelley and from what I have seen, she has the potential to become a very important player for the USWNT.” Heather adds to the conversation.  
“And what about Tobin Heath, when she came in to the game she took over control and settled the game.”  
“I think it was her best performance in a long time. But this type of play, possession based with a lot of quick passes, suits her better than the long ball play.”  
“A good performance for the USA gets them a 3-1 win over Australia. The USWNT will face Sweden next.”

 

All except Rapinoe, who joined Jill in the press room and Hope, who is taken away for a drugs test, walk into the locker room. The younger ones are celebrating like they won the World Cup already, while the veterans are happy but stay grounded. Christie and Abby let the rest of the team celebrate for a while before saying they still have a lot of games to win before they even get to the final. The team kind of split up, some go grab a shower, others go into an ice bath, a few have a massage and others just take a moment.  


Kelley goes to grab some ice for her ankle and Alex’s knee.  
“How is the knee?”  
“Good, I think I will be able to play the full ninety at the end of the group stage.”  
“Great” Kelley replies while handing over the ice “We’ll need you.”  
Kelley winces a bit when she feels the cold of the ice on her skin.  
“How’s the ankle?”  
“All right I guess. I didn’t experience much pain so it is going in the right direction.”  
“Good” The striker smiles. They both remain silent afterwards, taking in the moment.  
  
  


Hope knows this will take a while. Apparently they focused on the keepers this time, Barbieri is sitting a couple yards away. They both nod to acknowledge each other’s presence but that’s all.   
While waiting for her level of (de)hydration results to come back Hope relives the game in her head. She goes over everything she did and everything that she could have done better. She knows as a keeper alone there was not much she could have done to prevent Da Vanna’s shot from going in but she could have positioned her backline in another way that could have prevented Lisa from making that run. Hope is taken out of her thoughts by the doctor calling her name.  
Her results came in and this time they can finally take the drugs test.

  
Kelley is one of the last one to get into the shower. She is surprised to see JJ still standing under the shower. “Are you going to stay there forever?”  
“Thinking about it.” she laughs, still on a high of winning their game “It’s just nice to be able to take a shower like this again, not having to pump the water up with my foot.”  
“I know. I was looking for a bucket earlier. Funny how quickly you get used to something. It’s especially nice after a ninety minute game. I don’t know if my legs could handle it” Kelley says and opens up the tap, enjoying the water that streams down onto her shoulders.

 

Hope is on her way back to the locker room, the stadium has become silent. No more drumming, no more chanting, no more clicking sounds of cameras taking pictures, just the sound and echo of her studs on the concrete.  
Surprised to see the team is still here, usually the team is already long gone by the time you come back from the test. Hope quickly takes a shower and 15 minutes later the team is on its way back to their hotel.  
Still on a high from the game the team arrives at their hotel.  
Most of the players try to get in a small recovery session before dinner.

At dinner the girls try to talk about something else than soccer but inevitably soccer comes back around.  
 Kelley, who is sitting next to Ali asks “Is Kyle going to make the trip to Canada?”  
“Yes, he’s coming to Vancouver” Ali replies excitingly, “Is your family coming over?”  
“Jerry is on a cruise and Erin just started working at this new company so she also cannot come up but if we make it to the semis, my parents will be able to come up and watch our (hopefully two) last games.”  
“Where to?”  
“What?”  
“The cruise”  
“It’s not a holiday cruise. Jerry is in the navy and is currently on deployment in the Pacific.”  
Ali nods, she keeps forgetting, maybe once she meets them she will be able to remember.

 

 

“You did good out there today” Hope says while she walks up on Kelley.  
“You think? I thought I was way too nervous.” The defender says unconvincingly.  
“Everyone was.” Hope replies instantly  
“But not you.” Kelley says, looking Hope in the eye.  
Hope smiles “I was nervous but I cannot afford to let it affect my play.”  
“You were amazing tonight.” Kelley says and tucks a loose strand of hair behind Hope’s ear.  
“Thank you” Hope places a kiss on Kelley’s cheek before adding “I had a great backline though. Well, except for those first 25 minutes.”  
Kelley slaps Hope’s arm but she knows Hope is right, the team had played below their level in the first half.

 

One of the deals they made is that they would not talk about the game when it was just the two of them, as girlfriends. But Hope does believe that in a case like this everyone  would ask their girlfriend how it felt to play in their first world cup game.

“How did it feel? Your first world cup game.”  
Kelley closes her eyes and takes some deep breathes, relieving the moment.  
She thinks about Hope reassuring her after warms-up. All the feelings that rushed through her body when the team walked onto the pitch with the World Cup, ….

 

 

Hope is asleep within minutes, mentally and physically tired. A couple rooms down the hall, Kelley’s body is still full of adrenaline so she and Alex start a game of monop deal. It appeared not to be such a good idea, after a game or two they are still full of adrenaline. Some of the others had similar problems and 5 minutes later almost the half of the team is sitting in the hallway playing the playing settlers of catan or another game.

The games end at the same time they all sit back and lean against the wall.  
“A couple days ago we were on some island in the middle of the ocean, without electricity, and now we are at the world cup …” She trails off, seeing everyone’s minds going back.

 

 

Flashback

  
“Do you think they let us steer for a while?” Ashlyn asks Kelley  
“Ashlyn Michelle Harris you are not going onto the decks right now.” Ali lets out in shock. The boat is rolling and pitching pretty hard, water is flooding the decks, no way she is going to let her friends walk out of this cabin. Ashlyn and Kelley quickly sit back down, earning a few laughs from the others. They are bummed that in order for them to reach the wheelhouse they have to go onto the deck. Amy, Pinoe and Press are looking suspicious pale. Apart from that nothing too special is going on.

This remembers Whitney of the shaking of her dad’s old Mercedes, the boat completes another roll, _All right that might be a bit exaggerated. The car didn’t make 20 degrees rolls but it did bump around quite a bit._

 

“Does anyone know where we are going to?” Alex asks.  
Moe, sitting next to Cheney, is looking out of the window .  
Hope makes sure she is not sitting near any of the players that look sick.    
Amy, glad no cameras are around, answers “No idea, I just hope we don’t have to stay much longer in this storm.”  
Tobin, leaning against the wall, is asleep.  
Christie and Boxx don’t seem too relaxed.  
Abby is the quietest she has been since long.   
Hope is reading some book she almost forgotten she had stuffed it in her bag before the game.

It seemed like the ocean became calmer, or maybe they are just getting used to the rolling and pitching of the boat. Tobin and Whitney are the first ones to notice the small islands that have appeared at the horizon.

  
Pinoe is already talking about a private resort on the islands, the five star hotel, private beach, ….  
But once I get a better look at where we need to disembark, I rather think it is the opposite.  
Some are already complaining about the lack of cell phone connection. (the staff only handed their phones back once they were out of range), others are just glad they finally can get of the damn boat.  
The boat stops alongside a pontoon a couple yards from what seems to be the largest island of the archipelago . The defender’s trainer comes aboard with a bunch of lifejackets. While distributing the lifejackets he tells us to take off our shoes and everyone who has long sleeved pants will need to roll those up. By now everyone is confused but at the same time surprised as to what is going on.

Everyone wants to be in the first group to go ashore. Eventually Jill decides numbers 1-6 should go first along with some of the staff. While the first group steps into the zodiac, the crew unloads some bags onto the pontoon.

The zodiac takes off, all women curios as to what is going to happen.  
A couple yards from the shore the defender’s coach pulls the engine up so it doesn’t get damaged and Graeme, the goalkeeper coach, (who apparently got here before them) steps into the water to hold the boat while the players step out. Hope is the first one in the water, it is pretty easy for her since she is this big, for people like Kelley it is a lot harder. Hope is there to help out Kelley. While getting a piggy back ride from Hope to the beach Kelley says “Coach, are you finally going to tell us what we are doing here?”  
“You will have to wait a bit longer, once everyone is on the island we will explain everything.” Jill answers while getting out of the zodiac.  
Syd manages to talk Whitney into giving her a piggy back ride to the beach, even though the defender is only an inch bigger.  


The group arrives at the beach and Hope drops Kelley, but not before the defender sneaks in a small kiss on the keeper’s neck.  
While waiting for the others to arrive Syd and Kelley run up the hill to get a better view of the island.  
The zodiac makes a few runs back and fore to get everyone onto the island. The last cargo it transports is the luggage.

The team is asked to form 2 lines, to get up our luggage. The line ends at an old tractor. Hope wonders what is in the bags, since it is all Nike, USSF issue it is quite hard to determine what is inside without opening them. Once all the luggage is loaded onto the tractor it drives away.  
The women follow the coaching staff over the first hill.  
Hope’s impression is that it is a quite small island, no trees and as far as she can see only a couple of houses. She can hear Ali and Kelley wondering if the team is going to get the week off as promised. All the players are supposed to spend that weekend with their family, that is what they promised their moms at the surprise visit.  
Ashlyn and Tobin are talking about surfing. Syd and Alex are talking about their husbands.

After a short hike they arrive near three buildings, one is, judging by the boards and parts of boats lying around, definitely some kind of shop where you can repair you surfboard or sailing boat. The other appears to be a kitchen. The third building could be a lot of things, on the roof is some kind of lookout post.

  
Jill and a few others of the staff disappear for a moment while Dawn and some others bring us some water and apples. The majority sits down, a few walk around the third building to look over the beach. 

 “Dude it would be so cool if we could surf” Tobin says to Kelley on their way back to the group. She has already spotted the surfing boards leaning against the side of the building.  
“It would, but I doubt we are here to surf.”  
“maybe we can sneak in a surfing session later tonight.”  
 But before they can talk any further about that Jill and the other coaches come back out.

“Welcome to pre-world Cup camp.”  
I look around, I don’t really see a place where we can play soccer, no pitches, no goals.  
“This is where we are going to spend the remaining days until we leave for Canada. It is in our opinion that the team needed to be away from all the media and press for a while so we decided to move camp to this island, no cell phone connection, no journalists, …”  


“Where are we going to sleep?” Pinoe asks thinking Jill is done talking.  
Dawn points to a pile of covers and bars  
“Cool, we are going to sleep in tents” Ashlyn and Tobin let out in unison.  
Some are not as thrilled as them.  
Dawn continuous by telling the sleeping arrangements.

  
It doesn’t take long before the competition to be the first one to put up the tent starts.  
I and Becky take a the bars while Morgan, Press and JJ take the covers and Amy takes the box and gets almost knock over by Lori turning around, swinging the bars she is carrying on her shoulder, missing Amy’s head by less than an inch.  
JJ is the first one to find a good spot to put up the tent. We drop everything and look at the materials. We can see Alex and Kelley’s group have already started putting up the tent.

 

With two tents, presumably the coaching staff’s tents, already standing it was easier to figure out what to do. We manage to get the framing up pretty quickly and thanks mine and JJ height it is not that hard to install the upper hammocks/ bunks.  
So while JJ and I are securing the upper part Press and Whitney run back to get the matrasses. Sydney’s team seemed to have never put up a tent before. They finished the entire framing before realizing there was no way they were going to be able to put the cover over the tent so they had to remove the side bars again in order to be able to lower the roofing frame so they could put the cover over it. Becky and Amy are busy attaching the side covers and I look at Kelley’s tent. It looks like it will be a tight win for Hope’s team.  


Once our tent is finished we all sit down on a bed, only to realize our luggage is still at the hotel. I lie down for a moment _how will I be able to sleep in here? Everything is kind of blue.  
_ The sound of Seagulls flying over can clearly be heard. __  
“Has something similar happened before?” Kling asks.  
They all look at me.  
“Nope. They never pulled a similar stunt.”  
“Press you are from California, do you have any idea where we are?” JJ asks  
“Well I don’t really know all the island along the coast of California.” Christen adds a second later “Didn’t you go to Santa Clara?”  
“Yes, but I’m from Phoenix.” JJ clarifies, hoping it excuses her for not knowing these islands.

Amy changes the subject by voicing her concern of not being able to see or hear her little boy.  
I can hear Becky whisper, “I just hope they brought some books.”  
Hope smiles, she herself has two books. But the defender would be through them in a day or two and Hope has a feeling they are going to stay here for longer.

 _  
_ On our way to the buildings we come across Alex walking around with her phone up in the air.  
“What are you doing?”  
“Looking for cell phone reception.”  
“Didn’t Jill say there is none?” Moe asks  
“I know but I wanted to try anyways”  
I smile, _This might not have been such a stupid idea._  
But unlike the others, I don’t need to have cellphone reception to be able to talk to my girlfriend.

We walk up the steps and into one of the buildings. ‘Mess’ is written on the door. The room we walk into covers three quarters of the building. It is mainly filled with tables and benches. A simple painting with the different constellations and visible stars cover one of the walls. A map of the archipelago cover another wall.

Within five minutes the entire team is inside.

“As I said earlier this camp is all about the team, no connection to the outer world just this group. We are going to have trainings but you will also a lot of free time off course. But I’ll talk later more about this. You can try to find one but there is no cellphone reception on the island (or the others)  there is no Wi-Fi and no electricity. In case of emergency, you can ask me or any of the other staff to use the satellite phone.”  
“where are the showers?” Alex interrupts, hoping they didn’t need to just pour a bucket of water over them. She barely could deal with two weeks without her phone, she wasn’t sure she would survive 2 weeks without a real shower.

The coach points to a small building. The showers are over there, the round building a bit further houses (sinks, to brush your teeth).  
_At least we have real showers_ , Alex thinks.  
“Back to the showers.”  
Dawn picks up a bucket.  
_No no no, you are not going to tell me they built an entire building just so you could use it to pour a bucket of water of yourself.  
_ “You take a bucket and fill it, there is one tap for warm water and one for cold water.”  
_Thank God we dol have hot water._  
the fitness coach continues “than you go into the cabin and put the tube into the bucket. There is a foot pomp and a small hose. You put the hose into the bucket and pump up the water with your foot.  You’ll see it is not that hard.”  


If the showers were like this, Syd is afraid to ask about the toilets.


	43. Rest day

Hope spots Tobin and Kelley in the pool, doing some kind of recovery exercise.  
“You two are not planning on swimming a mile or two are you?”  


 

Flashback to first morning after arriving on the island.  


 

Kelley, Tobin, Syd, Pinoe, Moe and a couple others are sitting on the  beach. Kelley looks at the sandbank in front of them and remembers a dare she did back in Stanford.

“Tobin, wanna swim to the sandbank?” Kelley asks, knowing Tobin wouldn’t back out.  
“No way that you make it to the sandbank” Pinoe says before Tobin can reply.  
Tobin looks at the sea. She guesses the sandbank to be a little over a mile away, the swell seems mediocre but they had to get out of the breaking waves, after that it would not be too difficult.  
  
“If we make it to the sandbank, you two do our chores for one day”  
Syd and Pinoe look at each other “deal”  
The do the whole handshake thing to make it official.  
The duo take off their shirt and sweatpants and step into the water.   
Moe tries to talk them out of it, but the two have already taken off.  
_What if they don’t make it to the sandbank? They still have to swim back._  
The midfielder isn’t really at ease. She knows her two friends are good swimmers but they did play a full 90 and a few games of beach volley yesterday. She isn’t too sure they will make it without having cramps in their legs or even worse, without having the energy to keep swimming.

 

The temperature of the water is refreshing, both players easily swim further into the ocean.

The current is stronger than they expected it to be.   
“You good?” Kelley asks once they have passed the biggest waves.  
“Yeah, I’m good. You?”  
“I’m good”  
The two continue their swim, Tobin notices the water is clear enough for her to be able to see the bottom. She turns around for a moment and looks at the shore. She could have sworn they have swum further than this. The midfielder turns back around and continues her swim, but not without taking in the environment.

 

Kelley did notice it was a hell of a lot more difficult than last time she did something similar. She blamed it on the conditions, stating they are more difficult than 8 years ago. Water smashes into her face, the defender just blinks and keeps swimming.  
The two slow down a bit and look back “Do you want to go back?”  
“No. You?”  
“No, we are in the middle so let’s keep moving”

 

Hope’s group arrive at the beach and spot a few of their teammates sitting on one of the dunes and looking into the ocean.  
“What are you guys looking at?” Cheney asks and sits down next to Moe, following her teammates’ gaze.   
“Tobin and Kelley”  
Hope quickly diverts her gaze to the ocean. It takes her a while to locate the two players.  
“What are they doing?”  
The group remains silent, knowing they shouldn’t be doing this.  
Moe cracks pretty quickly under Hope’s Icy glare.  
“They are swimming to the sandbank”  


_Idiots, we are supposed to rest, not go on a two mile swim._  
Hope looks around, there are a lot of sailing boats (single hull and catamarans) behind them but even if they manage to get one into the water, Hope isn’t sure she would be able to sail it.   
Hope remembers she had some surfing boards at the shop. She takes off, shortly after followed by Ali. Cheney thinks about following them, but she knows she will not be able to close the gap between them at least not without having either to gasp for air after a few seconds or having chest pains and feeling light headed for at least a half an hour. So the midfielder remains seated and decides to look after Moe, who seems to be feeling guilty.

  
The two run op the wooden ramp, round the corner, slow down their pace and walk to the shop. A few of the staff look questioning at them but the two just keep walking. A minute later they are both peddling into the water. Ali, all of a sudden glad she joined Kyle and Ash sometimes on their surfing sessions, wonders where the keeper gets the strength to go this fast. That is only until she realizes she herself isn’t using her legs, remembering Hope’s upper body being a lot stronger. With her being in a wheelchair, the keeper’s upper body had to become stronger to able her of doing almost as much as a non-‘partially paralyzed’ person.

 

Kelley notices Tobin’s movement has changed, her movements have become smaller but faster.  
“Are you all right?”  
“Yeah, just a little cramp.”  
Kelley quickly makes her way to the midfielder.  
“Lie on your back and let your body drift on the surface.”  
Tobin turns around, she would have preferred to grab her leg and try to get out the cramp, but she listens to her friend.   
“which leg?”  
“The left one”  
Kelley takes Tobin’s left leg and stretches it.

By the time the cramp has dissolved the two have drifted quite far off course.  
The two start swimming again. Kelley estimates the sandbank to be one hundred yards or so away. The swell and current have once again become stronger, pulling the two soccer players towards the sandbank. Kelley, thinking she is able to stand, stops swimming and wants to stand. Only to disappear underneath the surface of the ocean. She swims back up and coughs to get the water she accidentally swallowed back out. Tobin pulls the defender onto the sand.

 

The two reach the sandbank just before Ali and Hope catch up with them.   
Hope would have reacted much more angry at Kelley and Tobin for being so reckless but Ali just beat her to it.

“You two do know what a rest day is for do you?”  


\---

 

“We totally could have made it back” Kelley says, taking them out of their flashback.  
“Off course” Hope smiles and slips into the water.  
Hope notices Kelley’s eyes on her.  
“See something you like?” Hope says quietly so only Kelley can hear it.  
The defender blushes but before she can come up with a strong comeback Tobin drags them both further into the pool and tells them to keep moving, while subtle motioning for Dawn, who had been watching all their movements like a hawk. Making sure the two don’t do anything more than the exercises she told them to do.


	44. Vancouver

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I started writing this chapter with the sun going under, right now the sun is coming back up. I'll reread this chapter again after a short nap, to get the mistakes out of the story. I just wanted to get this part of the story out.  
> Just a heads up, my version of the World Cup kind mainly follows the World Cup in Canada but from time to time the two deviate from each other.  
> For instance, at the time the USWNT had to play Nigeria no other teams were in Vancouver while in my story two other teams are there too.

The team is in Vancouver for their game against Nigeria.

A few accompany Jill to the stadium, preferring to watch the game in the stadium over watching the game on television. The ones that stay behind either play some games, read a book or follow the game on television.

The reporters are bummed they had to sign a contract, stating they would only ask questions about the game against Nigeria , prior to entering the room. They finally thought of getting some answers.  
It’s Hope turn to accompany Jill at the pre-game conference. The two walk inside the press room and sit down. Hope looks around, a lot of familiar faces but also some new ones. The FIFA representative opens the interview, the keeper tries to not look too bored.

 _Bla bla bla, the usual ..  
_ Suddenly everyone is looking at Hope.  
Hope’s eyes widen, _Did I say that out loud?  
_ The keeper looks at her coach, hoping she did not say that out loud.  
The coach repeats the question the FIFA lady asked “What do you think of the Nigerian team?”   
_Few…._  
“The Nigerians are a very athletic team and have proven to be a very good opponent.” Is all Hope could come up with in that split second  
It seems her answer is sufficient and Jill takes over, adding some opinions.  
The journalists get to ask some questions and once the journalist said he wanted to ask Jill a question Hope let her mind wander.   


 

“Please wait for the microphone.” The Fifa representative says once again   
“I have a question for Hope ….”  
This perked the keeper’s attention, _How did she get in here?  
_ Hope looks around trying to find  where the voice is coming from. Once she finds her she says, “Sorry could you repeat your name please, I didn’t quite catch it.” and leans back in her chair.  
“Amélie D’espoir” the journalists answers with a French accent.  
_Good one_ Hope has to hold back a laugh and leans forward  “And for what newspaper did you say you work?”   
“La reine émeraude”  
This one takes a bit longer for Hope to decipher “Never heard of it” Hope says and leans back, clearly challenging the journalist.  
“You should look it up. We’re pretty good”

Jill, as do the others, look at the banter. She recognizes the voice, but she cannot quite place where she has heard it before. The French accent is new though.

The Fifa representative looks confused between the keeper and journalist before looking at some co-workers, not sure what she should do.

All eyes are on the journalist, luckily for her the camera for the live stream is placed in the back of the room so even if it would be able to get the journalist in frame, they would only be able to get her back in the frame.  
Hope looks amused at the woman “I will. What was your question again?”

The woman starts with some easy questions. Followed by a questions she is not allowed to ask, according to the contract she didn’t sign.  
“How does it feel to be at a World Cup again?”  
Some journalist look with surprise all written over their face at their colleague . Although she didn’t ask explicit about how it felt to be back after the paralysis, it is clear she was pointing at Hope’s comeback.  


“It feels different, different teammates, different venues,… luckily it is still the same game though.”

This get a smile out of most journalists.  
“It feels good to be at a World Cup again. To be able to put on the jersey again and represent my country.”

“2 of the 4 players of your backline are players you have not or barely played with before this tournament. But it seems like you five are on the same page.”

 

Whoever this journalist is, the others like her, she asks questions no one else dares to ask. And they are pretty sure if they would ask them Hope or any of member of the USWNT would not answer. This made them wonder what the relationship between those two is.

 

Hope sees Jill leaning forward to say something but stops her.  
Although the journalists didn’t really ask a question Hope knows what she is pointing at. “Our backline is amazing. It is true that I wasn’t too familiar with some of my teammates after my comeback but the team has spent a lot of time together. And as you could see during the Sweden game we communicate really well and we have each other’s back.”  
“Did you tell Kling to stay there or did she just happened to be in the right spot?”  
Hope smiles, “I told her to be there.”  
  

“How do you like the Canadian sky?”  
Hope looks confused, as do the others. _Who asks a question like this to a goalkeeper at a world cup press conference?_  
“Well, it isn’t that different from the American one.”  
“No, I was asking for .. euhm. How do you say this in English. How do you like the … etoiles..” she tries but Hope doesn’t seem to get it.  
“The things you can see at night. Your team is looking for a third one.” She tries  
“Stars?” Hope tries, knowing the woman actually knows the word.  
“Yes, stars. What do you think of the stars in the Canadian sky?”

Still as strange as a question as before.  
“I don’t really know. I usually am already sleeping before you are really able to see the stars. And even if I could see them, they would never be able to top the view I had of them a couple weeks back.”

All right, this question might have been more useful than originally believed. If only they got to know more about where the team was before the world cup. They could scrap all the big cities off the list though. But that still leaves a million of places where they could have been.

The fifa decided the woman had asked enough questions and gives the microphone to another journalist.

 

The rest of the conference is pretty boring.  
They all want to get more out of the keeper and coach but thinking about the contract they signed, no one dares to. One tries to but Hope shut him down pretty quickly. Fifa representatives makes sure to check every one that walks out of the room, hoping to grab the woman. But she seemed to have disappeared. She probably walked out before the end of the conference. Hope join the others at the stadium while Jill goes back to the hotel to finalize the preparing for the Nigeria game.

 

Luckily they have seat away from fans so they can take in the game without getting bothered asking for a picture or signature. Hope usually loved handing out those but from time to time she just wanted to be a like any other normal person and just take in the game with friends.  
“How was the press conference?”  
“Like always. What did I miss?”  
“Not much, they started warming up a couple minutes ago.”

Hope sits down next to Kelley and interlaces their fingers.  
Kelley looks surprised at Hope, the keeper just smiles and gently squeezes the defenders hand. Kelley smiles back and has to resist the urge to lean closer to Hope.

 

“No way”! Cheney lets out in surprise. Everyone looks at the midfielder.  
“What?”  
A few follow her gaze and look at the big screen, _16 Van Steen_.  
“Friend of yours?” Syd asks  
“yeah, if she was my friend. Don’t you think I would have known she plays soccer.” The midfielder retorts without taking her eye of the player.  
This confuses others, if she wasn’t a friend why would Cheney act like this.

 _How does she know Van Steen?_ Goes through Hope’s mind. The keeper looks at Cheney for a moment before looking back at the players. The announcer continues introducing the rest of the team.

 

 

15 minutes left and the score is still tied at zero.  
I watch the fourth official raise the substitution board. A red number 9 and a green number 16 are shown. I turn my head back to the pitch and see my teammate running towards me. After a quick hug I run onto the pitch.

I take some deep breathes, but the heat radiating from the turf is just too much. My head is already spinning and all I did was jog onto the pitch.  
While the Colombian goalkeeper takes her time to take the goal kick, I look around. For some reason I cannot explain it always feels different. The crowd seems louder than just moments ago when I was on the bench.   


Kelley notices Hope moving to the tip of her chair and watching the game more intensely, as did Cheney. She looks at the number 16 but doesn’t recognize her. Truth be told, she doesn’t really follow this team.

 

My body is screaming for more oxygen, heartrate has gone through the roof but I keep running. the zero to one lead is good but it is not enough, I spot Du Bois running towards the box on the other side and cross the ball. She takes a few touches before sending the ball over, although I’m out of breath and really need to take a breather I sprint the last yard forward and jump. The keeper didn’t expect to see a red jersey to her left, she is way out of position to make the safe now She had expect the other player to take the shot, she didn’t expect a cross.

 

 

 

Hope looks around “How did you even got the idea?”  
“You never wondered when you are down there how it must look and feel like from up here?”  
Hope looks down, she looks at the pitch underneath her.  
“Nope, I never have.”  
The two sit remain silent for a while, taking in not only the view but also enjoying the moment of silence.

“How did you get into that press conference?”  
She wanted to reply ‘through the door’ but knew that would be pushing it, “You know, I just talked my way in.”  
Hope lets it go.   
“I’m sorry if those questions weren’t appropriate …”  
“Well, they were a lot nicer than the once they will ask after the world cup.”  


“Did you bring your dog?” Hope asks, changing subject.  
“Yeah, he’s with some friends, they don’t really allow dogs into the stadium.”  
  
  


Surprisingly the uswnt has the day off.

Kelley is grateful, it enables her about spending the day with some Stanford friends. She walks into the lobby and sees Heiff and Moe talking. Moe looks like she wants to run away and Kelley knows what he is probable asking her so she jogs towards her teammate.  
When she is in earshot of the two she says “There you are, we have been looking all over for you  …”  
At first the rookie midfielder is confused but the look on Kelley’s face makes her roll with it pretty fast.

The two players walk outside, leaving Aaron behind.  
“Thanks for that.”  
“You’re welcome.”  
The two walk down the street.  
“I he still bugging you with asking where we went to?”  
“Yes. I don’t know why I’m the only one he keeps asking.”  
“You are not the only one he keeps asking. You just have to come up with a story.”  
“A story?”  
“Yeah, every time he asks me I come up with another ridiculous story. The last time he asked me I told some story about us going to Egypt to help rebuilt one of the pyramids, after that he stopped asking.”  
Moe laughs “Guess I should do that the next time too.”  
Thinking enough time has passed Moe thanks Kelley once again and returns to the hotel, where she is planning on meeting her boyfriend.  
Kelley runs to the café, knowing she is once again too late. But her Stanford friends don’t know any different so she is sure they won’t mind her running a couple minutes late.

 

  
“Are we going to keep meeting like this?”   
“I hope not.”  
“What happened?”  
But since she has just put the oxygen mask back on, the midfielder has to wait some more.  
“I guess I pushed myself once again too far I guess.”  
“What would have happened when I didn’t pass by?”  
She once again takes of her oxygen mask “I would have been lying here, gasping for air, looking at my sports bag with the oxygen bottles lying at the sidelines,  ….”  
“It’s not funny Luce” the midfielder interjects before the Luce could finish her sentence.  
“No it’s not.” Luce becomes serious “I would have been fine. Eventually.”

Cheney waits till Luce is finished with the oxygen flask before asking any more questions. Once finished Luce takes off the mask, empties her bag and puts the oxygen container back into the bag. She then takes off her cleats, puts it in bag, refolds the number 16 jersey and also puts it into the bag, the rest of her stuff is just thrown in the bag.

“How do you do it? Playing professional soccer and coping with all of this.”  
“How do you do it?” Luce counters.  
“It’s not same, I don’t have to get the extra oxygen yet. I’m still in one of the earliest stages.”  
“It’s not that different. You just feel it faster and stronger. Usually I feel it coming and slow down a bit but I guess I should have taken some more rest.” She picks up her water bottle and takes a sip before continuing “How I cope with it? A lot of resting and planning , it is also a bit of a mental game, you just have to convince yourself you’re fine even though you are not. You also have to be smarter, time your runs more carefully. If a step more to the right prevents you from running after the other player you have to make that step, you just have to look at the game in an entirely different way, otherwise you won’t make it.”

  
Cheney nods, she knows she is no longer able to do a lot of those ‘ow Crap” runs and she has been trying to figure out a way of play that enables her to play longer without experiencing the symptoms, up until now she failed.  
“Does your coach knows?”  
“Off course he knows. And Jill, does she know?”  
“No, no one knows, except for Hope. Dawn has to know something is different, but so far she hasn’t mentioned it.”

“How come you are already in this stage, while I am 7 years older but still …”  
“At what age did you get your heart surgery?”  
“3”  
“I was 6, that’s the difference.”  


They ended up talking way longer than anticipated.  
Cheney had to hurry back to not miss ream dinner.

 

Game Day USA vs Nigeria

Hope runs back into the locker room early.  
She takes off her warming up shirt and puts it in her back. She takes out the protective brace and puts it on. She doesn’t really like she has to wear it, not that it is uncomfortable, she can barely feel she is waring it. But it is because it makes feel weak. She looks in the mirror and smiles thinking back about Kelley calling it her body armor. It kind of does look like high tech body armor.

Hope is surprised to see Cheney walking into the locker room a minute or so later, usually the team stays out on the pitch for 15 more minutes.  
The midfielder didn’t notice the keeper, she sits down on her chair and leans forward, resting her elbows on her knees.

Hope pulls her red shirt over the ‘body armor’ and makes her way to the midfielder. She squads down and asks “Are you all right?”  
the midfielder doesn’t respond so Hope quickly get Cheney to sit on the floor, stands behind the midfielder and holds up the midfielder’s arms.

  
“I was doing fine, but the heat is something that catches me off guard every time.”  
The keeper nods, she had done her research and knows, for people like Cheney, it is a lot harder to manage their symptoms in weather like this than in colder weather.  
By the time the rest of the team walks in, the two act as usual. Unless there isn’t a usual. Usual would be Cheney coming in with the rest while Hope is, well while Hope is doing whatever it is she is doing in the locker room prior to the team’s arrival.

 

The whistle is blown and the game begins. She has learned to cope with the chest pains but a thing that was more difficult was the lightheaded feeling. She always noticed when it was already too late. Her head started to feel warm and after a while her upper body didn’t seem to know what the upright position was. She had to constantly correct her stance, to not fall out of balance.

Hope spots her friend struggling but there is not that much she can do from back here. The midfielder slows down or even stops her runs earlier than before. She hangs back in the midfield while the corner is been taken, instead of taking the corner kick herself. When possible the keeper steers the players into a play that gives Cheney a chance to breathe.    


Hope misses the bus back to the hotel. To be honest, no one really saw her after the game. On a high of ending on top of their group and advancing to the knockout stage, the keeper seemed easily forgotten.

 

“I remember when I first found out, I was so angry. I mean, a few things in my apartment didn’t survive that day. I should have seen it coming, but I was telling myself I was all right, that all these things were happening because I was out of shape. I was angry that it would overcome me. It might sound pathetic but I felt like I had already been through so much and felt like I could really use a break.”  
Hope is perplex, she knew Luce had been having some health issues, but she never would have thought it would kill her.

“I was so angry that I would miss out on so much. I mean, somewhere I always have known. As I was younger some of my friends would tell about what they would do when they were old, really old like 60 but I never thought passed 30, …” _Not that I will make it that far …._  
Hope kept silent, she felt like Luce had still a lot to say  
But her friend remains silent. Only now the keeper notices the bag that is lying next to Luce. Thinking back, Hope realizes it is a bag Luce had been carrying around ever since a long time back.

“How long have you been taking the oxygen?”  
It sounded ridiculous, I mean, everyone needs oxygen but Hope didn’t want to emphasis the extra so she just asked it this way.  
“Don’t really keep track of it but it has probably a couple months.”  
“Why didn’t you tell me?”  
“Because it’s not something I want to let define me. When people find out, they either feel sorry for me or are afraid I’ll get a heart attack any moment.”  


Hope wants to object but she thinks back about how she has been treating since she found out. And she has to admit that she always takes it in consideration when interacting with the midfielder. She doesn’t think it is a bad thing but makes a mental note to ask her.

  
“I think with some parts I can relate. After I got paralyzed I got so angry, ….. But then again mine was only temporarily.” Hope feels stupid to wanting to compare with a situation she went through.  


“Yeah, I keep forgetting it isn’t temporary but with the others talking about the Olympics next year it once again reminded me. I don’t even know if I make the end of the year so ….” The striker looks at the pitch underneath them, not finishing her sentence.  


Hope didn’t really know what to say she was sitting with a twenty year old on the roof of a football stadium, looking down at the pitch the girl played on just an hour ago. A world cup match and the same girl talks about not even knowing if she is going to make the end of the year.

After the game the team gets some time to spend with their family before they leave for Edmonton. It reminds Kelley to a scene of OITNB, family sitting at a table waiting for you, way to short time to talk to them, ...

Kelley’s family isn’t here. Some of her friends are but she already said goodbye to them. She looks around, she knows Hope family did make it but they preferred meeting outside this room so the keeper could probably be found in the bar of the hotel with her mother and grandmother. But Kelley did spot the keeper’s family, no sign of the keeper though. Thinking back, the defender didn’t see the keeper getting on the bus.

Kelley is doubting about going over or not, to be honest she doesn’t really know much about Hope’s mom and grand mom. She did learned in the last month that Hope has a very close and special bond with her grandma, Alice. Just when she is about to make a final decision Hope walks in. She swings her arm around Kelley “No friends for you my love?” Hope asks in mock sang.  
“I have to many, that’s my problem. I don’t know where to start.”  
Hope laughs “well why don’t you start with the Heath’s they seem pretty eager to talk to you.”  
Kelley looks at Tobin’s table, Tobin and her mom are staring at them, Kelley quickly walks away from underneath Hope’s arm and joins table 17. Hope picks her bag back up and walks to her family.


	45. You know her?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this chapter on my old phone so it's a short one and I wasn't able to use italics so I hope it still clear.

Kelley curious as to who this number 16 is and what her relationship is with Cheney and Hope, drags her two teammates into her room, she had told her roommate to give her some time alone.

 

She was pretty certain this Luce is the same Luce that spent some time at their house after Hope's collision with Syd. She just wasn't sure what Cheney had to do with all this. She sits down and looks at them. The two look at each other, trying to determine if they did something wrong but neither player can come up with something. They look back at Kelley.

 

"What is the deal between you guys and this number 16, Luce?" Kelley asks, cutting to the chase. "You know Luce?" both players say in unison while looking at each other. Now Kelley is even more confused. (Why didn't Luce tell me about this?)Hope wonders.

 

Her two teammates talk through each other and Kelley tries to understand what they are saying but she fails to do so. Once she has the attention of both women she says "Cheney why don't you start with telling how you know Luce."

 

The midfielder looks at Hope for a second. Talking about Luce also means she would have to talk about that what she had been trying to conceal from the team. "We met in Portugal."

 

Hope was already curious as to how the midfielder knows her friend but now she was even more curious, she never got to find out where the midfielder was in those few days she claims to have been in the States taking care of some family business, while her flight ticket states otherwise.

 

"As you know I arrived a couple days later so I told the management I would take a cab or taxi, no need to send one of the guys to come pick me up." Cheney pauses for a moment to see if her teammates still follow.

"As I was loading my luggage into a cab, this girl (Luce) comes running to me and asks if I needed to go in the direction of Lagos and if so, If we could share a cab. She would feel more comfortable and it would mean the trip would only be half of the price for either of us. She looked ok and didn't seem like too much of a fan girl and she had also this cute little pup with her so I decided to share a can with her." Hope smiles, that would be something Luce would do.

"During the ride she kept quiet. If I recall correctly she didn't want to disturb even more. So after I while I asked her about the pup. For the remainder of the ride we mostly talked about the pup."

Cheney swallows and takes some deep breathes before she continues. Because once she continues, there is now way back. "I had noticed she was out of breathe. In the beginning I thought it might have been from the sprint she had to do to catch my cab but as the ride went on it became even worse. I could see she was trying to cover it so I didn't ask any further. As we got out of the car, out of the air conditioning and into the warm air, she started to have a hard time breathing. I think the cab hadn't turned the corner when she was already sitting on the ground, trying to open one of her bags."

Cheney looks at Hope, the keeper knows or can imagine what comes next but the defender doesn't know. Kelley looks at Hope to see if she knew about this or not. It had been clear the keeper didn't about Cheney knowing Luce but it also is clear that Hope knows about whatever is going on with her friend.

"It was clear she needed something out of her bag so instead of just grabbing my stuff and walking to the hotel I opened that bag. The first thing I spotted were these oxygen bottles. I took one and gave it to her. She put on the mask and opened the valve. It didn't take too long for her to visibly become better. I didn't really know what to do but I decided to hang around to make sure she was all right." Cheney knows the entire story will take way too long to tell so she decided to shorten things up. "So she started talking about this condition she has. And till today I still don't know how she did it but she knew. She knew that I have it too."

 

Kelley looks concerned at her friend. She knows, they all know, about the heart surgery the midfielder went through when she was younger. But she didn't think Cheney was having any trouble with it. "

Since I had, at that time, just done the tests and wasn't really sure what it all meant I guess I was just curious and interested how it would be to live with it." (Ok, if she was only diagnosed a couple months back, I can rule out that heart condition thing.)

The midfielder thinks now is a goods moment to switch from Luce to her. "But then a while later the diagnose came through, PAH." Kelley racks her brain but she has no idea what those three letters could stand for. But it probably wasn't something good.

"Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension." Cheney is silent for a moment. (Something with high blood pressure in the veins around the heart?) Kelley wonders. "As you know I have had a heart surgery when I was younger." Kelley nods. Cheney decides to skip on the symptoms and otter stuff like that. "So they now start to realize that the years prior to the surgery might have some bigger consequences than believed. But anyways" Cheney changes her mind and decides to just talk about PAH is before she loses the confidence to do so, "PAH means the blood pressure in the small circuit between the heart and lungs is elevated. After a while the 'walls' of those vains start to get thicker and less flexible, making it harder for the blood to flow through."

 

A thousand questions like 'is it treatable?' 'Are you still able to play soccer?' went through Kelley's mind, temporarily overwhelming her.

The youngest of the three than notices that her girlfriend doesn't seem shocked by this. "You knew?" Hope knows Kelley is upset with her not telling. But she also knows that as long as Cheney is with them Kelley won't show that. "I found out not so long ago." The look Kelley gave her made it clear she wanted some kind of explanation when it was just the two of them.

"What does this mean? For you I mean. Do you also need the extra oxygen?" Cheney shakes her head, "No, I'm only in one of the earliest stages so I don't need the extra oxygen." "What it does mean, is that, especially when the temperature is high, I'm faster out of breath when I'm doing some kind of physical activity."

 

Alex has the impression she walked in on a very serious conversation. But since the three stopped talking the moment she walked into the room, she has no idea what they were talking about. "Everything ok?" "Yeah. These two were already explaining me some midfielder stuff. And I think I got it down, just keep running back and fore, if I get the ball I pass it as quick as possible forward. Piece of cake." Kelley answers with a smile. Hope an Alex laugh, Cheney also smiles but she does give Kelley a slap on her arm.

The two say their goodbyes to the two younger players and go to their respectively rooms. Cheney has to make sure she gets enough hours of sleep. With them leaving tomorrow morning she has to be asleep within 15 minutes to reach her minimum hours of sleep limit.

 

"How did you know?" "I didn't know exactly, but from what you told me it was clear something was wrong. It wasn't till she asked what I have and me replying that I knew she has it too. She didn't ask with PAH stands for and some other small details that made it clear for me that she has it too."

Hope wonders how Luce could have known when Cheney would arrive. But she decides not to ask the question, knowing Luce's answer will probably be just a smile.

Hope grabs their order, the barista had put onto the counter just seconds ago. After walking out of the shop she hands Luce her order. "Still not drinking coffee I see." "I would never" Hope smiles "You should talk to Kelley, maybe she can set up a deal between you and that chocolate brand she has done some commercial for." Luce laughs "Do you see me doing a photo shoot of commercial?"

 

The two almost reached their hotel. Luce takes a sip of her hit chocolate before saying "see you back here I guess." Hope just smiles, not wanting to jinx it. She is confident her team is able to win the china and the France or Germany game. Hope quickly thinks about the opponents Luce's team will face. Canada shouldn't be a problem for them. Japan will be a though opponent but with the momentum they currently have going, who knows.

Kelley sees her girlfriend making her way back to the hotel with Luce walking next to her. Reminding her Hope still hasn't told their story. The two players walk back to their respective teams and Kelley decided to intercept this Luce.

"Although Hope still hasn't told me much about you. I want to thank you for taking care of her when I couldn't."

 

Hope sits down next to Carli, who is explaining something to JJ. Hope tries to follow but after half a minute she gives up and looks around. She is looking for Kelley but her girlfriend is nowhere to be found. Not even with Tobin and Alex, who are playing Monop deal on the floor. Carli must have noticed because she taps Hope on the shoulder and nods her head in a different direction. Hope turns around and sees Kelley talking to Luce.

 

"Just one last question." Kelley pauses a second before adding "How old are you?" "I'm 22 years old." Luce answers, not really knowing why the American wanted to know her age. Kelley smiles "good luck against Canada." "Thank you. You too against China."

 

Just when Hope decide to walk over, Kelley and Luce part ways. Seconds later Dawn tells them the bus has arrived and everyone starts taking their luggage and walks outside to the bus. The bus drives them to the plane that will fly them to the quarter finals of the World Cup.


	46. More than Krieger loves her mascara

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This will be the last chapter written on my phone. When I get back home next week I'll do a check up on these last two chapters and try to take out as many mistakes and change some things.

Hope thought she was prepared for everything, but Kelley once again proved her wrong. I mean, she could have known something special was up. Hope had noticed her girlfriend to be a lot more silent than usual, she blamed it on the stress she has for playing the quarter finals as a midfielder.

"Where did this come from?" The keeper asks once recovered from the initial surprise. "It's just, ..., with marriage equality finally coming through, Alex, Ashlyn, Pinoe and I were talking about it. It made me wonder if maybe one day you would want to be my wife. So Hope Amelia Solo, do you want to marry me?" This time adding "One day?" Kelley looks at her girlfriend, carefully studying her reaction.

"You want to be having this conversation ..." Hope checks her watch "4 hours before a World Cup quarterfinal?" Hope regrets saying so the second she finishes her sentence and sees Kelley's reaction. Somehow it sounded not as bad in her mind. Kelley's smile and excitement are quick to disappear. "You don't want to marry me?" Kelley asks, disappointment and hurt clearly evident in her voice."I didn't day so. I just ..." Hope pushes a few strings of her hair back and takes a moment before continuing "... I guess I just pictured us somewhere else having this conversation. Not in a rush, a hotel room with teammates who can hear us around."

Kelley nods, she can agree with Hope on this one; this might indeed not be the best place to have a conversation like this. But since they started it already they better finish it. "You still didn't answer my question though." Kelley says, a little bit more hopeful after hearing what Hood had to say.

Hope decided to be honest. It might not entirely be what Kelley had been hoping for but the keeper believes her girlfriend should know where she is coming from. "Before I tell you, you have to promise to listen to my entire story." "Ok" Kelley uncertainly replies.

"As a little girl I believed in whatever ... true love and one person. One right person for everybody and I always wanted kids. And than as I got older, all of that went out of the window. I was like, maybe you choose who you want to be with but there is not like that passionate love, that real real real love. I stopped believing in it." By now Kelley is ready to either slap Hope across the face or run away without looking back but she promised Hope to stay so she stays. The keeper continues "And then you came around and made me believe in love again, in that real passionate love. To have that excitement to one day build a family." Hope looks Kelley in the eye and adds "and have kids with you. It's just ... That's also what scares me. I like to think I know how to show how much I love you. I just don't know how to be a family, how to raise children, ..., and what if I get hit in the back again and get paralyzed again. I cannot and will not keep you back." Hope adds, but it more seemed like she was talking to herself "but then again, I cannot imagine my future without you and our kids."

Kelley is speechless but at the same time she wants to say so many things, she just doesn't really know where to begin, a million thoughts flying through her mind. Hope stops thinking about how to voice what is going through her mind when she sees the look in Kelley's eyes. "Kelley could you please say something. I'm kind of freaking out..." _Ok that's a lie, I'm freaking out big time._

Kelley looks up in surprise. _I'm allowed to say something_? "You want to have children with me?" Kelley lets out in a surprise, also surprising herself that that's the first sentence that comes out of her mouth. Hope looks confused, _isn't that what I just told her._

"The good thing about marriage is that you are not alone to do so. We are two... You say you don't know to be family, you don't necessarily have to have kids to be a family. The few months we lived together, we were a family. We still are. We take care of each other, love each other, sometimes we have discussions but we always make up ..." Hope smiles. "About that raising children part. I also have no idea how to do so, I think no one really does until they have children. But there are books you know and we can always ask our friends, who have children, for some advice. And for the rest we will have to find out for ourselves."

 Kelley then puts her hands on Hope's upper legs. "I cannot guarantee you not getting paralyzed again. But neither can you guarantee that you get paralyzed again after taking a hit. Are you going to live your whole life in fear of getting paralyzed again?" Kelley looks at her girlfriend for a moment before continuing "I don't love you because of your legs, even though they are smoking hot, or because you can walk, ... , I love you because you are you. You notice things that go unnoticed by others. You make people feel home and although the people that don't know you personally might sketch you as an ice cold bitch, you (off al the people that I know) are the one with the biggest heart."

It's Hope's time to be speechless. So she does the only thing she can think of and pulls Kelley closer and kisses her, hoping to convey all her feelings. Kelley pulls back "so I'll ask again. They say third time is a charm" Hope and Kelley both laugh. "Hope Amelia Solo, will you marry me ... One day" "If anyone who would still say no after getting a speech like you just gave, I think you should dump them right now. "

"For the record though. I expect you to do the real proposal."Kelley says Hope smiles and just looks at Kelley for a moment. "Have I told you lately how much I love you?" Hope asks. Kelley pretends to be thinking real hard "How much is that exactly?" "More than Krieger loves her mascara." Kelley looks confused, she hadn't expected an answer like this but before she can ask Hope to clarify Carli walks into the room. "All right lovebirds, time to leave for the game."

The team walks into the locker room. Kelley sits down at her booth and looks straight at Ali, that remembers her of something. "Hey Al, how much do you love your mascara?" Ali looks up, confused but before the right back can form an answer Ashlyn beats her to it. "She can't live without it. She wouldn't even think about getting the paper without."

The team had noticed Kelley's unusual high level of excitement. And then there was also that weird question in the locker room. But for now they had other things on their mind.

With Pinoe and Cheney suspended Jill had to make some changes in midfield. She had a few choices, veteran midfielders like HAO or new and more all-round players like Kelley. The forward, or defender as you like had been stellar at trainings and at some of their previous games (as a defender, Kelley had been splitting time with Kling). She has proven to be deadly in the attack and solid in defense. So as a midfielder, if she is able to use both those skills, she could be the missing piece Jill had been looking for.

Both teams are ready to start. Kelley takes off as a rocket. An outsider might not believe she would be able to keep up that tempo for 90 minutes but the team and coaching staff know better.

At halftime Jill knows she made the right decision putting O'Hara in as a right mid. On the pitch Kelley has just been on another level. Running up and down the flanks, sending in crosses, getting a few shots on target and she and Ali seemed to combine perfectly.

The keeper is hoping for her girlfriend's firs goal of the tournament. If she keeps it up like this, sooner rather than later she will find the back of the net. Kelley gets of a stellar shot, only to see it getting tipped over by the fingertips of the Chinese keeper.

Another corner kick for the US, the keeper knew something was wrong the moment the ball was sent back into the Chinese box after the rebound and saw Kelley ducking away. She hadn't seen any contact between Kelley and a Chinese player, but her girlfriend isn't one to duck so Hope knows somehow Kelley must have gotten injured.

Once the referee spots the blood on Kelley's face, she quickly sends the midfielder to the sidelines to get some treatment. Kelley going down was not part of the plan. Seeing her sprinting to the sideline once the referee told her to get some treatment did make Jill hopeful she could continue playing.

Kelley encourages the medical staff to hurry, Jill comes to check on her. Kelley tells her she is fine though. Although Kelley's nose doesn't appear to be broke, Jill decides to take her out. She will need Kelley in the next two games. Kelley gets a new shirt and stands at the sideline, asking the fourth official to let her back into the game. Once she gets the signal she sprints back onto the pitch.

Just a few minutes later the whistle is once again blown. Kelley looks at the sideline and see the fourth official holding the substitution board, with a red number five on it, above her head. Kelley jogs to the sideline, gives her some last encouragement and walks to the bench.

She sits down and waits for Tony to bring her some ice, only now noticing the killer headache she has. She is bummed that Jill took her out of the game, she had a feeling that this was going to be the game, the game wherein she would score her first World Cup goal. But after thinking about it for a few seconds, Kelley realizes it was evident for Jill to take her out. This way Kelley can take care o her nose, or at least make sure it doesn't get any worse. Kelley was thinking back to the play she got injured. She suddenly spots Abby looking expectantly at her. "What?" Kelley asks, she clearly missed whatever the forward told her. Abby looks back at her I a way that says 'never mind'.

It doesn't take Kelley too long to realize the mistake she has made by sitting down next to the rather loud forward. So the midfielder gets up and goes for a walk. With the ball rolling out of bounce at the other side of the pitch Hope allows herself to look at the sidelines, just for a second. Kelley is already looking at her, giving her a thumbs up. Hope nods, although there is no way Kelley was able to see it, and refocuses on the game.

The final whistle is blown ten minutes or so later and apart from a late shot, that was saved by Hope, china didn't have any real chances.

Once the two are out of sight of the cameras or any spectators. Hope gently cups Kelley's chin and turns the midfielder's head first to the right, then to the left to make sure Kelley is fine. "I'm fine" Kelley says a couple times but there is nothing that can keep the keeper from finish making sure her girlfriend is fine. "Headache?" "Just sat too close to Abby" Hope shortly laughs "nauseous?" "Nope." "Did you black out?" "No? Hope finishes her examination, "anything else?" "No, I'm feeling fine." "Stop scratching your nose." "The dried blood itches." Kelley tries to justify her actions while once again bringing up her hand to scratch her nose. Hope swats Kelley's hand away, opens her water bottle and empties it onto her small towel. She then gently rubs the blood away. "Better?" "Better. But I could think of something that would make it even more better." Hope shakes her head, but she did pick up on the change in tone. She raises an eyebrow and says "oh yeah?" "Yes, a kiss would really seal the deal." Hope laughs, but leans in anyways.

Kelley scrunches her nose "you're all sweaty." "You love me anyways." Hope calls out while Kelley makes her way to the locker room. Hope stays there, waiting for Carli to finish her post game press conference. Meanwhile in the locker room. "For a girl who got just punched in the face you look way too happy." Arod remarks web Kelley, still smiling, walks into the locker room. "WE JUST MADE IT TO THE SEMIS!" Kelley yells and does some kind of celebration, soon joined by Syd.

Hope and Carli are one if the last to make it out of the locker room. "What did you do?" Carli asks her friend. Hope looks questioning at her friend. "Kelley. What did you do to get her like this?" Carli clarifies. "You know Kelley, game day alone is already enough encouragement for her to get like this." "She was really on fire" Carli agrees," but really, what did you do to her?" "I told her I want to marry her and have kids with her." The keeper says nonchalantly and keeps walking. Carli on the other hand stops dead in her tracks.

When Jill walks towards the bus a minute or so later the midfielder is still standing there. "Trying to catch the last few rays of sun?" The midfielder shakes her head and looks up in confusion "huh? What?" The coach waits for Carli to catch up and they walk the last few yards to the bus together.

The two step onto the bus and before the midfielder even makes it to her seat, the driver has already taken off. Carli spots Tobin sitting next to Hope, she looks around for another place to sit and spots JJ signaling her to sit next to her. On the way back to the hotel Carli tries to concentrate on what JJ and the others around her are saying but her mind keeps going back to the last conversation she had with Hope. She looks at Kelley a few times, she doesn't spot a ring. But then agan they did just play a game so maybe Kelley left it at the hotel. After another look Kelley looks questioning at Carli, the midfielder just shakes her head and for the remaining of the ride she doesn't look at Kelley anymore. The bus finally arrives at hotel. Carli feels like they have seen every single red light of the city on their way back. This definitely felt like the longest ride she has ever been on.

Kelley follows the medical staff to get a full check up on her nose. While Carli makes sure Hope doesn't make any pitstops on her way to their room. "You proposed to her?" Carli asks once the door closes behind them. "WHAT?"No. Where did this come from." "YOU telling me that you told Kelley you want to marry her and have kids with her." Hope sits down on her bed "Kelley, Ashlyn, Alex and Pinoe had been talking about marriage equality in the US and it made Kelley wonder if marriage is in the books for us or not." "So wen are you going to propose?" "Not any time soon. With the Olympics coming up we will be way to busy to plan a wedding." Carli nods.

"And with us only dating for a little over a year I do thinking have still a couple years on Brian." Now, with a ring around her finger, Carli can laugh about it. Hope suddenly seemed to remember something. _How could we have forgotten?_


	47. Keep an eye on her

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the super long wait! This chapter is just a filler chapter between the China and Germany game. Once classes start again (end of september) I will be able to update more regularly again.

Kelley grunts and lets her body fall back onto the mattress. Hope, who is straddling the defender, flips her hair to one side before leaning down and once again capturing Kelley’s lips with her own. Hope’s hands roam underneath Kelley’s shirt and she lets her lips linger just a bit longer before backing off and getting off the bed while yelling “Coming”  
“You wish” Kelley mutters underneath her breath.  
Hope turns back around and says “From the look on your face I would rather say you are the one wishing you are.”  
The look on Kelley’s face is priceless. Hope smirks before continuing her way to the door.

Hope opens the door and greets one of her favorite midfielders. Once she spots Cheney is not alone the keeper squads down and greets one of the youngest members of the team. “I didn’t know you were joining us tonight.” Hope says while picking up a rather sleepy Ryan.  
“Arod dropped him off a couple minutes ago.” Cheney elaborates. Hope nods and follows her teammate back into the room.

Kelley has regained her composure by the time Cheney and Hope, who is carrying Ryan, walk back into the room. The defender puts up her hand to acknowledge Cheney’s presence and continues taking something to eat and drink for all of them.

The midfielder has just plugged in her phone and wants to ask Kelley what movie they are going to see but judging from the look on Kelley’s face Cheney is pretty sure that whatever she says now will go unnoticed by the defender. She follows Kelley’s gaze and a smile creeps onto Cheney’s face. Kelley is looking at her girlfriend, who is holding Ryan and cannot help but think back about their conversation prior to the China game. But before the midfielder can make any kind of comment there is another knock on the door and Cheney knows if she isn’t the one who goes to open the door the person in the hallway will be standing there, knocking on the door, for quite some time.

 

 

* * *

 

 

The team has some time off after recovery and dinner. Normally they would have hung out together but tonight they decided to take their mind off soccer for a moment and spend some time with their families.

Kelley’s family did come to some of the group stage games and will come to the semifinals (and hopefully the final) but due to an unexpected commitment they couldn’t be here today. So she spends some time with Christen’s family, she also is once again invited at the Heath table. But after seeing Pinoe greeting her girlfriend Kelley makes up her mind to try to get some private time with Hope after dinner.

Tobin is excited to see her family after the game. She had hoped Claire would be here too but the French coach decided to take his team home after their loss against Germany. She knew her girlfriend was a bit down after going down in the final minutes of the last group stage game and thus not being able to play in their quarter final against Germany. Tobin not only longed to see, hear and be able to feel her girlfriend again she also wanted to be there for Claire, make sure she is all right.  
Although she missed her family, it somehow feels less ‘painful’ if she doesn’t spent too much time with them so she does see them briefly before dinner but she does tell them she won’t be able to see them after dinner.

 

With her not having played the game (and thus not needing to do any recovery) Cheney gets some extra time to see her family before dinner. She did fail to mention to them she is free after dinner. Cheney isn’t really sure why she didn’t tell them, guess she just needed some time for herself.

 

Hope knows her family and some friends will make the trip to Vancouver to see them lift the trophy the team has been working so hard for. Although she would have loved for her grandmother to be here every game but she knows that all the travelling isn’t easy for a lady like Alice so she is glad her grandmother will be there to see them lift the trophy.

 

* * *

 

 

So that is how Hope, Cheney, Tobin, Kelley and last minute addition, Ryan, end up in Hope’s and Carli’s room, watching a movie.  
Surprisingly Carli seemed to have disappeared. With her not having any friends or family over and usually going to sleep early, they don’t really know where their veteran midfielder is or what she is doing. Hope did sent Carli a text message but that one goes unanswered.

Tobin, Cheney and Ryan lie on one bed while Hope and Kelley share the other one. The couple does know they will have to keep the touches to a minimum, not that they would have been all over each other anyways. Neither of them is a real fan from showing affection to  each other in public. You never knew how much Ryan would tell his mother and the last thing they wanted was the toddler breaking the news to their teammates just days before the World Cup Semi Finals.

Kelley is snuggled into Hope. The keeper happily swings her arms around her defender.  
With Kelley in her arms and tired of the match, Hope starts drifting asleep.  
Kelley has other plans tough and pokes Hope’s side “Don’t fall asleep, the movie just started.”  
“It’s not really my kind of movie and you know my mind is exhausted after a game, especially a game like this ” Hope whispers into Kelley’s ear, not wanting to draw the attention of the other two.  
She was tired but not that tired, truth be told she just spaced out trying to come up with something to surprise Kelley.  
“If your mind is that exhausted, why don’t you stop wondering about whatever it is that is going on in this big head of yours and just watch the movie, no need to think just relax and watch.”  
Hope tries to focus on the movie but can’t help to pay more attention to the way Kelley is holding Hope’s hand and is seemingly inspecting them..

“Shouldn’t you be watching the movie instead of …” Hope whispers into Kelley’s ear while turning around with her hands, not really sure how to describe what her girlfriend is doing.

Kelley blushes and refocuses on the movie but not before having placed a kiss on the corner of Hope’s lips. The keeper wants to have a real kiss but with two of their teammates plus Ryan sitting on the other bed Hope has to settle for the kiss she received (seconds ago).

 

Cheney looks at the two on the other bed. Tonight is the first time she really sees those two acting like this. Except for her reading Hope’s letter to Kelley, by accident, Cheney hadn’t really seen anything that could point on them being a couple. Off course Kelley’s seemingly disability to keep her hands for herself around the keeper but then again Kelley was like that with a lot of players so that was not really something that counts. Cheney isn’t even sure the couple times she caught Hope staring at Kelley (and vice versa) count.

  
“You should have seen them when we went to California together. I swear those two …. ” Tobin shakes her head, remembering one of last year’s best weeks and forgets to finish her sentence.  
This surprises Cheney, she had no idea Hope, Tobin and Kelley went on vacation together. This also makes the midfielder wonder if there are some more things she doesn’t know about her fellow new kid. The two refocus on the movie but Cheney makes a mental note to ask Tobin about that holiday later.

 

A minute or two later Tobin throws one of Carli’s pillows at the couple and adds “I thought we were going to see a movie.” She says silently, not wanting to wake up Ryan.  
Kelley wants to retorts by saying something about Tobin and Claire but Hope beats her to it.  
“No need to get violent Heath. It’s not because ….” Hope catches herself just in time and Kelley is there to divert the subject “SSHT, this is the best part of the movie.”

Hope’s (almost) slip up goes unnoticed by Cheney, who’s attention is momentarily drawn by Ryan who, while sleeping, rolled on top of her legs.  
The four seemingly all focus on the movie again.  
Not really tough, Tobin’s heartbeat is skyrocket high because of the fear of one of her secrets getting unveiled to once again someone new.  
She wants to throw another pillow at Hope but by the way Kelley is looking at her girlfriend Tobin knows her friend is giving Hope an earful. And her throwing another pillow at the couple might raise even more questions by her fellow midfielder.  
Not much later her phone buzzes, Tobin glances at the screen, it is Hope sending an I’m sorry message. Tobin just nods, hoping the keeper gets the message.

 

“Hey, babe. Don’t fall asleep” Hope says 5 minutes later kind of in a mock tone.  
“But you are so comfy” Kelley murmurs and places her head in the crook of Hope’s neck, she wiggles a bit till she is in the perfect position. She can hear Hope’s calm and steady heartbeat, she feels Hope’s fingers drawing random patterns on her back.  
Hope kisses the top of Kelley’s head, knowing her defender will fall asleep no matter what.

 

 

By the time the movie ends Kelley and Hope are both asleep.  
Cheney thinks about snapping a picture, you never know when it might come in handy, but knowing phones are regularly passed around for music or showing some picture, tweet,… , she decides it might not be a real smart idea to do so.  
  
“You better tell Carli ..” Before she could finish that sentence they hear a door closing.  
“You better tell Carli what?” the midfielder asks while taking off her shoes.  
The two new kids look up, surprised to see Carli standing in front of them.  
“that she is probably better off switching rooms with Kelley for tonight.” Cheney continues her sentence.

Carli frowns and looks at Hope’s bed. Carli shakes her head upon seeing Kelley and Hope asleep but at the same time she has to suppress a smile from forming on her lips. Those two as a couple are still a mystery to her but seeing Hope like this made her happy. It made her happy to see her friend happy and loved again.

“Yeah that is not really going to happen. I don’t really want to have to explain to Dawn tomorrow morning why I switched beds.” Carli says while grabbing her PJ’s, making it clear to the new kids she would like to go to sleep.

Tobin and Cheney say goodnight to Carli, Cheney picks up a sleeping Ryan and they walk out of the room. Some of their teammates are sitting in the ground, playing some game.  
“What were you two doing in Hope’s room?”  
Tobin quickly comes up with something.  
It feels wrong to lie to her teammates, especially since the team got so much closer at the island.   
“join us for a game or two” Meghan asks.  
“I’ll have to pass, I’m exhausted and I really want to get to my room before Kelley is asleep.” Tobin comes up with  
“Where is that squirrel anyways? She usually isn’t one to miss out on nights like this.” Press asks  
“You know Kelley, she gets way too excited and over active, resulting in her crashing early.”  
Press laughs, “yeah, that does sound like Kelley.”

For her to be able to reach her minimum hours of sleep she’ll have to be asleep within 10 minutes. So Cheney also takes a raincheck and after having said goodnight to her friends she quickly makes her way to her room.

 

Carli walks out of the bathroom and lies down on her bed, sends Brian a quick text before putting her phone aside. She faces her two friends “You two better behave tonight” Carli says out loud, not caring the other two are already asleep and don’t really hear her, before falling asleep.

 

 

Hope wakes up, surprised to feel someone lying half on top of her, once she recognizes the familiar scent a smile creeps up Hope’s face.

A remark coming from the other bed makes Hope put her arms around Kelley and turn them so her back is facing Carli but not before flipping her friend off.  
Hope drifts back asleep within seconds

Carli shakes her head at the sight in front of her. She puts on her running gear and goes for an early morning jog.

 

Kelley wakes up in Hope’s arms, she then notices it is light outside but quickly turns back around so she is facing Hope and without having really opened her eyes she falls back asleep.

 

 

  
Kelley is gone for not even a minute when Hope’s phone buzzes, indicating she received a text message.  
Hope is curious as to what her defender forgot this time.  
‘Are you two decent?’  
Hope rolls her eyes and types out a reply ‘No we are both butt naked… off course we are decent, it’s just 2 days before the semifinals, what did you expect ????’

Carli walks into the room a minute or two later. She does do a quick inspection of the room, it seems to be in all right.

 

After breakfast the team steps onto the bus to Montreal.  
Hope has come up with several ideas but none seem good enough. She knows she will have to keep it low key but at the same time she wants the entire team to know Kelley is loved. She knows the team is judging Kelley’s girlfriend for not being here, to watch the games but more importantly to be there for Kelley, to support her.

She looks at Moe and Kling and sees Moe showing Kling some pictures of her boyfriend from last night at the game. Hope suddenly knows what she is going to do. It is not something really originally or special,  but she does hope to be able to convey just how much she loves Kelley and how much she enjoys and cherishes  all their moments together.

  
Tobin is surprised to see Hope texted her. With Alex sitting next to her she knows she’ll probable not be able to read and answer the text without the striker reading along  
She distracts Alex by asking if she had seen their monop cards and quickly reads the message.  
‘Do you still have the pictures you took at our vacation?’  
‘Yeah, still have them. Do you want me to send them to you?’  
“Are you sure you dropped them?” Alex asks while trying to look underneath her chair.  
“Yeah. I was holding them a second ago and then the bump in the road took me by surprise and I dropped it. They should be somewhere around” Tobin replies while impatiently waiting for Hope’s response, she wasn’t sure how much longer she could distract the striker (without attracting the attention of the others).  
“I don’t find them.” Alex says  
‘You would be doing me a big favor. Thank you!’  
Tobin smiles and quickly _searches_  underneath her chair and _finds_ the monop cards.  
“You’re right, they were underneath my chair. Sorry”  
Alex glares at her friend, but the sparks in her eyes lets Tobin know the striker is not really annoyed.

 

The training was brutal, actually only for Cheney, since the semi-final was just in 2 days Jill didn’t want to push her team too far. It wasn’t necessarily the intensity of the exercises that got her but it was the heat got the best of Cheney. She felt light headed and has some chest pains that seem to disable her from breathing normally.  
She has already emptied two bottles of water over her head but still feels like her head is overheating. A third one is already in Cheney’s hand but the bottle never makes it over her head. She has to drop it in order for her to be able to hold onto the railing.  
Hope quickly makes her way to the midfielder once she spots Cheney gripping the railing to prevent herself from falling over.  
“I don’t think I can handle it.” Cheney says with her eyes closed trying to block out the spinning.  
Hope stands next to the midfielder and gently places her hand on Cheney’s shoulder “One game at a time, remember?”  
“If I cannot even get through a simple practice how the hell am I supposed to play a full 90 against a team like Germany?”  
Hope can easily pick up on the anger in Cheney’s voice.  
Hope wishes she is better at things like this. Not really knowing what to do she looks around. Luckily this is a closed practice, no press or fans around. The majority of the other players is already back in the locker room and the ones that aren’t, are making their way to the locker room.  
Hope thinks quickly, she knows she will have to talk to the midfielder now because once they get back to the team Cheney will have blocked out all of her feelings about this and Hope will not be able to get to her, to know what the midfielder really thinks and feels.

She spots Jill and Dawn picking up the training equipment. After making sure Cheney is relatively of she quickly jogs to their coach “Jill, Cheney and I are going to stay here just a bit longer.”  
Jill looks at her keeper with a raised eyebrow. She doesn’t really like players staying behind at the training fields after practice but she knows the keeper and midfielder are both too professional and both wanting to win this World Cup way too much to do anything that will compromise their dreams.

On her way back to her friend Hope has picked up her phone and is making a quick call, hoping to get some inside intel on what to do. The keeper is frustrated, she doesn’t have half of the stuff Luce told her might help or doesn’t know how to do it what Luce is telling her.  
But Cheney furiously hitting one of the dummies, that are placed next to the railing, makes her hang up pretty quickly and rush over to the midfielder.  
Hope wraps her arms around Cheney and holds her close. But before Hope has a tight grip on the midfielder, Cheney has already turned around and instead of hitting the fence and dummies she is hitting Hope. The keeper lets her, for a moment before she manages to tighten her grip and hold Cheney close. The midfielder protests she wants to keep hitting , she wants to get the anger out but Hope holds her tightly and with her increased heartrate Cheney has difficulties getting enough oxygen into her body, she then starts crying because she feels like she lost control over her own body. Because she wonders why she had to have this, Wasn’t an open heart surgery enough? No she had to have this one too. This all resulting in her having even more trouble to regulate her breathing and causes her to have a panic attack because she feels like she isn’t getting enough oxygen.

Hope, still holding Cheney, sits down and leans a bit back.  
She remembers something Luce told her on the phone, she breathes in and out a bit louder than usual. Not long after she can feel (and hear) Cheney copying her breathing. It does take Cheney quite long to calm down and bring her pulse back to (a) normal level.

Hope tries to think about the tips and tricks Luce told her but she has already forgotten them.  
For now Cheney looks fine, Hope hopes it will stay this way. Not sure if she will be able to calm her friend down when she has another one of those ‘attacks’. What she did remember from one of their previous conversations was Luce telling Hope that Cheney would be dealing this harder since she was still all new to it. Since she doesn’t know yet what is just her head trying to make her believe something and what is a real dangerous situation.

Hope let go of the midfielder and shuffles back so she can move herself next to the midfielder. The keeper waits a few minutes to give Cheney some time to  
She never has seen her friend like this but then again, Cheney isn’t one to break down, she is the one that takes care of her teammates.  
She hears her phone somewhere on the pitch, she dropped it when she saw Cheney freaking out and makes a mental note to not forget retrieving it before they leave.  
Only now realizing, more like feeling, Cheney delivered some solid punches.  
She can hear Kelley already (after finding out about the bruises) _I told you so. You should wear your brace at every game and also every practice. …._

 

While Hope is thinking about all that, Cheney finally feels all right again.  
The midfielder turns to the keeper “Can you keep this between us. I hate to ask to keep this from Kelley but ….”  
Hope gently puts her hand on Cheney’s arm “Chen, it’s ok. I won’t tell.”  
The midfielder smiles gratefully.

  
Cheney’s attention seemed to have been captured by a small brown rabbit who is making his way towards midfield. Hope then remembered Cheney’s doctor is supposed to check on her before the Germany game.  
“Your doctor is still coming tomorrow?”  
“Shoot! No, he’s coming later today. He wants to do some test this evening and repeat them tomorrow morning.” Cheney replies, completely forgotten about the appointment.

Hope pulls her friend back onto her two feet. They first pick up the waterbottles before making their way to their bags. Hope knows she should press harder to get to know what is going on in Cheney’s head but she figures that that can wait. She doesn’t want to distress the midfielder any more.

They go look for Hope’s phone, it would have been easier if they could call the damn thing with Cheney’s phone but the battery of that one died so they had to go every square inch of the pitch between where Hope’s bag is and where they were seated just a few minutes ago.

 

Hope is eventually the one who finds it, after hearing one single beep (indicating she received a text message) the phone is easily located. Hope notices she has a couple texts from Kelley, mainly asking if everything is ok and if the two of them will make it back before dinner.  
She smiles and replies they are ok and will start making their way back to the hotel.  
On their way back, they just talk about what they are going to do in November.

 

 

Hope watches her friend walking away with her doctor and is about to walk out of the lobby when her name is called.  
“Hope”, the keeper turns around and spots the fitness coach making her way towards her “Do you have a minute?”  
The keeper, not sure what Dawn wants to talk about, replies “Off course”  
Dawn motions for them to step into one of the conference rooms.  
Hope isn’t really sure if she should sit down or not. Dawn doesn’t make any indication she should sit down so Hope stands awkwardly, waiting for the fitness coach to elaborate on what she wants to talk about.

 

“I don’t know what is going on with Cheney and I’m not asking you to tell me. I just want you to know, I have been keeping an eye on her lately and even though her results are approximately the same I can tell she is faster out of breath than usual, always spraying water over herself, ..., her results haven’t changed that much so Jill and the other coaches will not be able to notice something is going on. Whatever is going on it better be over soon if not I advise you to come see me.”  
Hope nods, not jet having processed what she just was told.  
Dawn is already on her way out when she turns back around  
“Oh and Hope.” The keeper looks up “keep an eye on her. I hope that whatever is going on is only temporary and that she will recover fast. Know you guys can always come to me and talk about whatever you want to talk about.”

  
Hope nods, still shocked the fitness coach found out. With that Dawn walks away

 

Hope stays there for a while, letting her mind process what just happened.  
She than once again takes her phone while making her way into the city.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apparantly it is not such a good idea to cycle for 80 miles on a bycicle that is too small. I busted my knee and ankle and am basically unable to walk. Downside, I might miss out on the hiking trip in Sweden I planned for, lets hope for a miracle. Upside, since I cannot really do any of the things I planned to do, I have a lot of time to write and will hopefully be able to get the next chapter out before I go to Sweden.


	48. Shoot! I forgot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Survived Sweden and arrived in Le Havre, France, to see the France vs Brazil game. This chapter covers the game between USA and Germany and a surprise for Kelley. Seeing a lot of other writers putting up new chapters every day I'm going to try to up my game and update more frequently. I don't make any promises though but I'm hoping for at least 2 updates a week these first couple of weeks.

Realizing this might be the last time she has Cheney standing next to her for the starting XI picture in a World Cup match Hope pulls Cheney a bit closer. She wonders who will take Cheney’s place in the starting XI picture when the midfielder is no longer able to play. If Alex was on the starting lineup she most of the times preferred to stand on Hope’s right, while Cheney stands on Hope’s left. Becky? Moe? She then wonders how long the midfielder will still be able to play with them. The picture is taken and Hope tries to forget about the fact that it probably won’t take too long before she no longer has Cheney standing next to her.  
The team comes together for one final group huddle before the start of the game.

Cheney felt the keeper pulling her a bit closer and she thinks she has a pretty good idea why the keeper did so.  
Only she is wrong, she thinks the keeper did so to say she was having her back to say she would be all right this game to say she’s got this.

While Hope jogs towards goal Kelley walks towards the bench. The keeper joins her defense for the defense huddle while Kelley sits down on the bench between Syd and Abby. She is a bit disappointed she didn’t get the start. But she gets it, they are 23 and with her being the one with the least experience (except for the back-up keepers) it seems logical for Jill to bench her. Although the coach did tell her she only bench her out of concern for her ankle.

The Georgian native uses the moment just before kickoff to look around and to take it all in, the fans, the players, the way the ball is lying on the spot ready to be kicked away, Hope adjusting the straps on her gloves, the chants the fans are singing,…

Germany is the team that starts strong.  
Kelley knows Hope is confident. Apparently Hope has never lost to Germany.

The first dangerous shot from Germany is a header of a corner kick in the third minute. Hope jumps up, along with Kling but the ball sails over. Hope unintentionally pushes Kling into the side netting but they luckily no repeat of Hope’s horror story of her meeting with one of the hooks.

A give away in the midfield sends Germany into a quick counter attack but Becky is there once again to quickly break up the play.

The first corner kick for the US almost resulted in a goal. An excellent header from JJ and also unfortunately an excellent safe from Angerer. The players on the bench had already their hopes up and sit back down onto the bench with a sigh.

Germany reacts by a fast attack just minutes later. Hope pushes the ball over the crossbar.  
Kelley knows her girlfriend is more nervous then she led on. At a normal game she would have easily picked up that ball (and hold it)

In the 28th minute Moe and a Germany player stay down after a head to head collision. Hope rushes towards the rookie midfielder, Ali already standing next to the midfielder. The fans surprised to see that all the playing uswnt players come to check on their teammate. Hope strokes Moe’s back, in an attempted to calm her down, while they are waiting for the medical staff to arrive. Kelley notices that her teammates are still close to Moe while the German players have long forgotten about their fallen teammate and hurried to the sidelines to get something to drink. Jill and Tony pace worried up and down the sidelines. _maybe they had preferred one of the us players making the run towards the sideline to bring them up to speed_. Jill keeps her eyes on Morgan.

Hope finishes telling the defenders what needs to be changed and spots the two medics helping Moe to sit up. She picks up her water bottle and hands it to the midfielder. In meantime Jill, Tony, Dawn and Graeme (as all the players on the bench) finally get the signal Moe is good to continue playing.

 

While one German player runs to the American box to check up on her teammate, one US player makes her way to the bench to inform the coaches. Jill has told all the bench players to warm up in meantime and quickly makes her way to the sideline to hear what Cheney has to say.

 

Although the team does create some chances, they seem unable to finish. So the games goes into halftime with the scoreboard still only supporting zeroes.

 

Early  into the second half their worst scenario becomes reality. JJ takes down Popp in the box, earning a yellow card and the Germans get awarded a PK.

 

Kelley knows Hope has been studying all the opponents on their PK taking tactics. They (Hope, Graeme, the other goalkeepers and when it was just Hope Kelley joined her from time to time) had been watching so many PK’s until they knew every single player’s tactics. In the beginning Kelley was a big help but after a while she got more interested in watching her girlfriends all focused and intense.  
Sasic is the only one they didn’t figure out. They watched her PK’s over and over but they didn’t figure out a way to predict if she is going to go left or right. They looked at the total amount of Pk’s taken and the times she shot left and the times she shot right are exactly the same. So it is also not an option to just dive to Sasic favorite side, because she has none.

 

What they did figure out is that Sasic likes to take her PK’s as fast as possible.

 

Kelley smiles when she spots Hope slowly making her way to the corner flag while sipping from her water bottle from time to time. Abby, who is sitting next to Kelley, looks confused at her neighbor “What are you smiling about?” she asks in disbelieve, she doesn’t think anything about this moment is something to smile for.  
“Hope’s got this” Kelley replies confidentially, completely shocking Abby by her level of confidence.  
Abby quirks and eyebrow before turning her attention back to the pitch. She spots the Germans celebrating and wonders if she has missed the PK but she then spots Hope walking towards the goal, the ball still lying on the spot. This all confuses her, _why would the Germans be celebrating before the PK is even taken?_

Hope stands in the middle of the goal and tries to make herself as big as possible. She prepares herself, knowing Sasic will immediately take the PK after the whistle is blown. Kelley swears everyone on the bench is holding their breath, she knows she is. Her heart shatters when Hope dives the wrong way but then not even a second later the players jump off the bench with a big smile. Sasic missed.

The players and coaching staff cannot believe it, in Germany’s entire World Cup career they never missed a PK. Hope even does a small celebration. While the players jog back towards midfield Hope quickly sprints to JJ to say some encouraging words before she sends the ball back in play.

Kelley sits back down with a smile. Hope simply out-psyched Sasic.

 

60th minute and the score is still tied at zero.  
Kelley wants to be out the pitch, helping her teammates. Jill told her they would need her in the final so she wouldn’t see too many minutes today to rest her ankle a bit more.  
_If she waits much longer, there will be no final where they need me.  
_ Kelley pushed that thought quickly out of her mind. It’s not like she is the big star they need to have on the pitch to win a game.

A couple minutes later the referee once again points to the PK spot. This time after a German defender took down Alex. While most are happy to see they got a PK, Hope cringes because Alex once again took a hit and stayed down longer then usually. But the striker does seem to walk away from it without permanent damage. Carli steps up to take the PK. As if on a signal all the players and staff on the bench stand up and walk to the sideline, all holding onto each other they stand there, waiting for Carli to take the PK. Not really all (not playing) players though. Kelley had been warming up along the sidelines. At the time of the foul she was so close to the American goal she decided to stay there. Knowing she wouldn’t make it to the others in time. She is also curious as to how her keeper acted during this kind of plays. It isn’t a reoccurring thing to both see the keeper and the PK been taken at the same time.

Hope is confident her best friend will score. Carli thrives in moments like this. Eyes focused on the ball, blocking out all sound. The only sound she hears is the whistle being blown. One more calm breathe before she starts going forward. The next moment the ball flies into the back of the net and the US are up one to zero. Carli runs towards the US family section for the celebration, soon joined by her teammates.

Kelley laughs at Hope’s little celebration. It’s cute. She than spots Tony waiving her over and makes her way back to the bench.

 

Kelley stands at the sideline, next to the fourth official.  
She calls Moe, confusing the fourth official on who she is subbing in for. After telling the woman she is indeed subbing in for number 17 Kelley turns her attention back to Moe.  
Tobin, who had been walking away from the fourth official takes a while to notice she is subbed out of the game. Giving Kelley some extra time to pass on the info she received last minute from Tony and Jill.

Kelley has an immediate impact on the game. Wanting to prove to Jill that her ankle is all right.

In the 82 minute Kelley is on a run towards goal on a pass through from Carli, but the referee decides the play is off side. She herself isn’t able to see if it was the wrong call or not but that doesn’t matter. What matters is the fact that her teammates send in balls towards her this late in a game, trusting Kelley to make something out of it.

Hope could see Cheney struggling. In the 84th minute she was too slow to get the ball moving, Alex, who would have had a clear shot was overlooked and instead Cheney passed the ball seconds later to Abby.

Abby dribbles down to the end line and Kelley wonders for a second if this is all they are going to do for the remaining minutes. Are they just going to play it safe and waste time? She hopes not, she is one who goes for a hard fought and deserved win. But then Abby passes the ball back. Carli receives the ball at the top of the box and manages to make her way to the end line. Kelley knows Carli will cross the ball in front of goal hoping a teammate will be there to kick it in. So she sprints, manages to get in front of her defender and just jumps trying to get to the ball. The moment she feels her foot connecting with the ball she knows it will go in. She is too close for the ball to fly out of frame and Angerer is standing out of position (not expecting the ball send in for a cross) no way she will make it back in time to safe it.

Before she even hits the ground Kelley is already back up, celebrating. She runs to Cheney, who is always there to catch celebrating goal scores, but last minute Kelley decides to change heading and go to the one that gave her the final pass.

At the other side of the pitch Hope is just beaming of pride. With less than 10 minutes to go, they are leading 2-0 over Germany in a World Cup semifinal. The first goal scored by her best friend, the second goal scored by her girlfriend. She knows that whatever the Germans will throw at her and the backline, nothing will hold her back from ending this game with a clean sheet.

 

Once the final whistle is blown all the players run towards Kelley, who is hugging Cheney, to congratulate her on her first World Cup goal.

Hope however wasn’t present at that celebration. She wanted to talk to JJ before the others overwhelm the rookie defender.

After the talk and some hugging with the other members of the defense Hope marches towards Kelley, only to be intercepted just a yard away from her girlfriend by their coach. Jill congratulates the keeper. The second the coach leaves to go to the next player Hope turns around and scoops Kelley away from JJ.  
She surprises Kelley by wrapping her arms around turning them around a couple times.

Kelley uses this moment to get even closer to Hope. While still in Hope’s arms she goes for the keeper’s neck.  
“I’m so proud of you” Hope whispers and shifts her arm around Kelley’s shoulder. Kelley is surprised Hope leaves her arm there for the entire walk to  where the team is standing. They form a circle, Jill telling how proud she is and how well they played. Abby giving some additional pump up. After the huddle Kelley is called away to do some interview while Hope manages to get into the locker room without having to answer a single question.

 

Kelley is still on a high from scoring her first World Cup goal.  
With the stadium in Montréal not built for a bus to be able to ride into it the players had to walk through a mixed zone. So this is one of the few times the fans had a chance to see the players before they stepped onto the bus. Most of them tried to get a picture with their idol or an autograph. But few were lucky, most players had already given out some signatures and now just wanted to get back to their hotel as fast as possible. Kelley however, noticed how a little girl was almost crunched by the bigger ones. As not being that big herself, she knows how hard it is so Kelley does stop and has her full attention on the girl.  
Kelley squads down so she is level with the girl.

The others try to get her to sign their jersey’s, pictures or soccer ball but Kelley kindly tells them she will sign some after she has talked to this girl.

“Are you Kelley O’Hara?” The little girl asks.  
“Yes I am. And who are you?”  
“Alexandra”  
Kelley smiles _Off course, another Alexandra._

“This is for you” The girl says while holding the flower for Kelley to take she had been hiding behind her back. Kelley takes the flower and looks surprised at the little girl, this is not something she had expected.  
“Thank you.” Kelley says while taking in the scent of the flower and totally missing the looks she gets from her passing teammates.  
“It’s not my flower though.” The girl quickly replies.  
Kelley looks up in confusion.  
“There was this woman who asked me to give the flower and envelope to you” The girl than remembers she also has an envelope to give.  
After having given the envelope to Kelley she remembers something else “she also told me I should not say the flower isn’t mine.

Kelley laughs _Hope is definitely behind this._

After talking with the girl for a bit longer and quickly signing some jerseys Kelley hurries to the bus.

Kelley steps onto the bus. Still wondering about what would be in the envelope, it takes her a few seconds to realize it is quiet on the bus. Suspiciously quiet, way too quiet to be honest.  
She looks up and sees all of her teammates looking curiously at her.  
“You either have a secret admirer or your girlfriend has some making up to do.” Christie remarks.

Truth be told, Kelley isn’t really sure. She is like 99 percent certain Hope is the one behind this. But she cannot really think of a reason why Hope would give a little girl a flower and envelope to hand to her. _Maybe this is just one of her ‘I love you so much and want to make sure you know that’ moments._

Hao is the first one to spot the envelop “Wooo she also wrote you a letter, certainly some making up to do.”  
Kelley looks around, she still has the undivided attention of her teammates. She wasn’t really looking around to see that, she is looking around to get a glimpse of Hope. The keeper almost unnoticeably nods.

Kelley knows she doesn’t have to open the envelope here. But since Hope has signaled her it is ‘teammates proof’ and she cannot really wait to open the envelope she decides to do it anyways.  
Kelley puts down her bag and hands her flower to Tobin (to keep it safe) knowing it will be easier this way to open the envelope without having to worry about not damaging the flower.  
She carefully opens the envelope and takes out a couple photos and a letter. She did notice something is written on the inside of the envelope. But she decides to keep that for herself and read it later when she is on her own.

It didn’t take long before the pictures where passed along. A partial picture of a starbucks cup. But not just any starbucks cup, it is a picture of Kelley’s cup the day she met Hope. ‘The girl that can …. Smile’ was all that is visible on the picture.  with _The moment I realized you are someone special_ written on the back of the photo.

  
A picture of Kelley on the Reign’s training pitch

  
A picture of the two of them on the beach.  

A screenshot of Kelley when she watched Hope walking for the first time, with _I would do anything to make you this proud of me again._  


A picture of someone on a surfboard, with _Thank you for not only making me fall in love with you but also with the ocean._

An underwater picture of the two of them diving.

A picture of Kelley with flour and chocolate all over her.  

A picture of the squirrel constellation.  
And a bunch of other pictures.

_These are not the only things I love about you/ the only memories we have but I couldn’t print any more pictures (I ran out of money)._

 

Thank you for letting me be with you this last year. I really hope I get to hang around you for a very long time …. New memories..

 

It takes Kelley a few seconds but then she says “Shoot, I forgot!”  
“You forgot your one year anniversary?” Pinoe, who had been reading along over Kelley’s shoulder, asks.

Kelley tries to find out what date we are, “yes, but so did she, she is also late.”  
The team cannot believe it. Who would forget their one year anniversary? They kind of could see Kelley forgetting it but to learn that Kelley’s girlfriend also forgot it made them think about how the two of them would be together. After reading the letter Pinoe wasn’t too shocked to hear they both forgot it.  
It does made her question. She always thought Hope and Kelley are a thing. She even put 50 bucks on it. But now after reading this letter and seeing the pictures the midfielder wasn’t so sure anymore. She looks at the keeper who is looking at one of the picture with JJ and Carli. Pinoe studies the keeper’s face but

Hope is glad she waited till after the game to get the flower and envelope to Kelley. She didn’t want anyone thinking Kelley only played this good too show off to her girlfriend.  
  
Kelley is glad the hotel is close to the stadium. She isn’t sure how much longer she would have been able to hold of the _How come we haven’t seen a real picture of your girlfriend? When are we going to see her? …_

She herself was also having some questions but the biggest question is _How did Hope know I would go to that little girl?_

Kelley is the first one out of the bus. Not only to escape the unasked questions but also because she wants to celebrate with her parents and sister. She runs into the hotel, waiving to the fans that are waiting for them and quickly makes her way to the room where all the family members of the players are. Once inside Kelley suddenly drops her bag, takes off and leaps into her brother’s arms.  
“I thought you were in the middle of the Pacific.”  
“I was” he says while hugging his sister before continuing “but I couldn’t let you score your first World cup goal without me being present could I?”  
They both grin and if even possible, Kelley is even more glad she scored today.

 

After having talked for a moment Jerry remarks there are some other family members that want to congratulate her. Kelley goes back to grab her bag. That’s when she spots Hope.  
On one side Kelley really wants to have some alone time with her keeper but on the other side, her brother is here.  
“Go be with them” Hope signals.  
Kelley doubts, she at least wants to thank Hope for the rose and the pictures and at least apologize for forgetting their one year anniversary but the keeper signals her they will see each other later (at dinner).

Kelley glances once more at Hope, whispers an “I love you” even though she knows Hope won’t hear it, picks up her bag and goes to her sister and parents. While Hope turns around and makes her way to Carli’s room.

“I thought you would be celebrating with your girl.” Carli remarks when she sees her friend walking into the room.  
“You are not the only one on this team that can go an entire World Cup without having sex.” Hope quickly counters and sits down on JJ’s bed.  
Carli didn’t expect an answer like that.  
They quickly change subject though, Hope and Kelley having sex is not something the midfielder wants to think about.

Hope goes back to her room, letting the midfielder alone too doo her post-game recovery exercises.

“Hey Al, do you want to go get a coffee?”  
“Yeah, just give me a minute to finish my conversation with Kyle.” The defender response while leaning to her right to let Hope see the face of her brother on her laptop.  
“Hope” The other Krieger says.  
Hope nods, she still wasn’t really fond of the defender’s brother. Not that she dislikes Kyle, she just doesn’t know him very well and his level of intensity is sometimes just a bit too much for her. Although it is not really something she can say out loud with her being with Kelley. Hope smiles and thinks she might has to give him a real shot.  
After Kyle has congratulated her on her clean sheet, and the whole stalling time on the PK thing she leaves the Krieger siblings alone to finish their conversation.

 

The two make their way into the city and walk into a coffee shop. Keeping a light conversation while waiting for their coffees to arrive.  
After they sit down with their coffee Hope asks about Sweden, about how it feels to be back in the States, about the Washington Fre… Spirit.

Hope smiles when she notices this spark in Ali’s eyes when she is talking about Sweden and the Spirit. Hope from time to time interjects saying she’s seen some of the Sweden games, clearly surprising Ali.

  
They hadn’t really talked about this because this all happened when the keeper was at home, paralyzed. Ali also didn’t begin talking about Sweden because that would also mean her asking Hope how she was at that time. She knows from back when she tore her ACL all the questions of how she is doing can be exhausting. On one side you want people to ask how you are doing  (acknowledging that you suffered and trying your best to come back) but on the other hand, you don’t want them to ask because it was something painful and you’ll never be able to explain how it really felt. Knowing Hope is someone who lives in the moment and likes to keep the past in the past she didn’t think it was her place to ask about the keeper about that time.

 

Although the keeper hadn’t been generous with talking about the time she was paralyzed, she always did answer the question if one of the players asked her about it. Not that many had asked, in the beginning they were afraid to ask and now, they are not afraid anymore but they’ve just forgotten about it.

 

Both their cups are already empty but the two enjoy being out here and continue talking.  
“How is Ashlyn?” Hope asks after having contemplated this question for so long.  
Although Hope asked it non-specifically Ali knows what the keeper is pointing at. To be honest this is a complicated answer because on one side Ashlyn is, like all of them, so pumped that they are going to the final but on the other side Ashlyn is a bit down that she went from playing all the matches when Hope wasn’t available to playing none when Hope joined the team again.

“Ashlyn is ok.”  
She looks around to make sure no one is able to pick up what she is going to say next. Because she knows if anyone else than Hope hears what she is going to say next it will come back to her to bite her in the ass.  
Ali does shuffle a bit closer before saying “Ashlyn is an amazing keeper. Don’t get me wrong, but she is not on your level.” She would have liked to take a sip from her coffee but her cup is already empty “In the first game of the tournament we were playing it safe. Trying not to let anything passed us so you shouldn’t have to do much. And it only resulted in you having to pull of two almost impossible saves to keep the score tied at zero. That’s when we realized you are the same Hope as before, not really the same, better than the Hope from before. And as long as we listen to you and do our own thing for the rest we will win. We know we can let a ball slip because you are behind us. Having you behind us allows us to play more freely.” She pauses a moment trying to find a better word to describe what she is feeling “…, with more confidence.”

Hope is silent for a moment , taking in what Ali just told her. It never hurts to hear the team plays better with her in goal.  
“Thanks.” The keeper says, not really sure how to respond. She does makes a mental note to go talk to her fellow keeper.

On their way back to the hotel Ali and Hope get recognized. Both players agree to take some pictures with the fans and hand out some signatures while listening to their stories.

 


	49. Chapter 49

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First I want to take a moment to thank all you guys. I was going over some comments I received and realized that you have given me so much pride and joy in writing this story, pushed me at times to keep writing. I can't believe it took me 49 chapters to finally thank you guys properly for reading this story.
> 
> I don't know what this chapter is yet. I wanted to incorporate what they did on the island and how it affected their team. But it seems I still have some work on that part. I’m also working on the final, it’s going to be something big!

Dawn keeps staring at the horizon even though the sun went down a couple minutes ago.  Apart from the sound of the waves, the seagulls and the group of girls talking on the beach it is dead silent. No music, no noise from traffic, no sirens, no shutters of camera’s going off, … . They have been here for a couple of days and she still doesn’t know how Jill even has got the idea of taking the team here.  
But it is amazing. Although the team’s motto is _Pressure makes us,_ she knows what the pressure really does to the team, to the players.  
Being here on the island, far away from fans, media, press, social media, far away from that pressure she has seen the players let down their guard, relax and just be their unfiltered self. It’s especially good to see Alex 25-years old Morgan again and not Alex, bearing the weight of an entire nation on her shoulders, Morgan. To be honest it’s not just Alex, all the players looked more relaxed. But don’t be mistaken, the team is working very hard, swimming sessions to one of the other islands, fitness sessions, technique training, scrimmages. The atmosphere had just been different, maybe the lack of photographers and outsiders had something to do with it.

 

It’s amazing how much the players changed in such a short period of time. Without knowing, Dawn didn’t notice till this afternoon, Jill has managed to bring all the players together and form one team. Off course you still had some groups of best friends but the players were more comfortable with each other, it wasn’t a strange sight anymore to see Press and Becky walking together or Alyssa and Boxxy sitting together or Hope and Kelley although they have always seem close so that’s a bad example.  
They looked after each other, when they had to do a swimming training they swim as one group and no longer as 11 groups. When one is about to drop out of the exercise they encourage that player to hold on just a bit longer. Instead of wanting themselves make good they used their own strengths to cover for someone else’s weaknesses.   
  
Dawn had known Jill to be fan of team building sessions but never in a million years would she have guessed the coach to pull a stunt like this one just a couple days before the start of the world cup. _This is either going down as brilliant thin (get the players together as a team and get the team in that bubble they always talk about) or as a disaster (lack of focus and seem rusty)_

 

A sound from behind her pulls her out of her thoughts. Dawn turns around to see who is joining her on the roof and spots Jill, holding two cup. Jill hands the other English woman the two cups so she can sit down. Dawn would have preferred tea but a hot chocolate (courtesy of miss Kelley O’Hara) is also welcome. Once Jill is seated Dawn hands her one of the cups back.  
The two sit in silence for a moment when Jill out of the blue asks “Did you enjoy the last week?”

  
The fitness coach is taken by surprise with this question and doesn’t really know what to answer.  
When Jill doesn’t get an answer she looks at Dawn, not that she can see the fitness coach. It’s new moon and even the bright stars and milky way don’t give enough light for her to be able to see the expression on Dawn’s face.  
“We have a pretty stressful month ahead of us and you have been working nonstop since I took the job. If I could I had given you some extra time off before  the whole world cup journey I would have .”  


The fitness coach has to admit the scenery is amazing, it reminds her of home a bit and although she has a ton of work to do she isn’t exhausted and truly enjoys it. Being here on the island and working with the girls like this, one of the best moments of her career. She just hopes this all is going to work out.  


 

 

* * *

 

Dawn looks around and smiles. The team is sitting in a conference room, watching the other semifinal. The entire team is sitting in large couches and tucked themselves under some blankets. Somehow they managed to persuade the hotel staff into putting a couple couches in the room. Then the staff was kind enough to bring them some healthy snacks, tea and off course, hot chocolate.  
If she thinks back to 4 years ago she cannot believe how different the same people seem to be. It’s good to see they still have the island mentality although all of the players do act much more ‘responsible’ and ‘correct’ because once again their every step is documented on photo or video.

 

The tournament has been amazing. The team started out slow, they didn’t score that many goals but apart from a lone goal in the first game they didn’t conceive any goals. And what’s different from al the previous tournaments she has been with the USWNT is the team’s spirit, you can see if on and off the pitch. This is probably one of the most stressful month of their year and yet none of the players seem to be affected by the pressure, the expectation, all still going strong, looking after each other and most importantly the playful banter is still there. _Thank god for Pinoe, Syd, Kelley and Alex’s competitiveness._

And the game against Germany, Jill changing the formation, the team proved that they can handle a change like that against a team like Germany, Kelley’s first World Cup goal. There are a lot players on the team injured but they do all the exercises Dawn told them to do. All wanting to get back healthy to be able to fully support the team again.

Moments like those, seeing all of her work paid off, Dawn is glad she didn’t quit.

 

Kelley is grateful for Christen coming with the idea of the blankets. And she is even more happy the place next to Hope is empty. The defender drags Tobin with her and sits down next to Hope.   
Hope turns around to see who’s seated next to her. She already knows though.  
Kelley intertwines their fingers underneath the blanket. Hope turns her head and looks at her girlfriend.  
Kelley just squeezes Hope’s hand, the keeper smiles.  


Not long after most of the blankets are on the ground. The girls picked them up the first few times but with the girls jumping up every time one of the teams got an opportunity to score the blankets dropped back onto the ground, eventually they stopped bothering. Most are surprised though to see Japan isn’t the strongest team in this game. Not Hope though, Hope sits on the tip of the couch, watching the game intensely.

 

At halftime some rush towards the toilet. Some go to get some more things to eat or drink. While the others discus the game.  
It was almost as if they were all coach of one of the two teams and had to defend their game play.  
Hope sits amused in the back watching how even Carli gets lost in the discussion.

 

The players go back to their rooms to get some sleep before their early morning flight to Vancouver, knowing they will play the final against an opponent they have never played before.  
The team does help the hotel staff to put back the couches before they go to their rooms.

 

  
While waiting for the elevator doors to close Kelley looks at Hope and winks.  
Hope tries not to smile (to avoid comments) and is glad she’s the only one who takes the stairs to her room so no one is able to see the blush that crept on her cheeks. _Damn O’Hara, she’s still able to make me blush like that,_ but Hope would not want to have it any other way.

Tobin makes a quick call to Claire, but her defender doesn’t pick up.  
The midfielder thinks about leaving a message but she never was good at leaving messages so she just locks her phone instead and joins her teammates on their way upstairs.  


Tobin throws her phone onto her bed and walks into the bathroom.  
While she brushes her teeth her mind flashes back to the time on the island.

 

The group starts making their way back to the tents. By now some got it down pretty accurately while others still fall over every bump or hole in the ‘road’. In the beginning (that is if you were able to see in the dark) you could see them all shuffling, very slowly, trying not to bump against something.

It is still weird for 12 women or so to be brushing their teeth in the same ‘room’. The sinks are placed in a circle, luckily there are mirrors placed inside the circle so in fact you can only see the one or two teammates next to you on each side.

Tobin is on her way back to her tent, she has just spotted Kelley and Hope sneaking away and wonders how in the world the rest of the team didn’t pick up on that (yet).  
She drops off her stuff at her bunk and walks back to the edge of the island.

The end of her brushing her teeth also means the end of the flashback.

 _Man I could totally live there. I could go surf every day, hang around at the beach, not have to worry about anything else._  
Tobin is still lost in her thoughts so she completely misses what her roommate had been trying to say to her.  
Meghan rolls her eyes, knowing Tobin is somewhere far away.  
“Just so you know, your phone has been ringing nonstop ever since you were in that bathroom.”

 

Tobin jumps onto her bed. She grabs her phone to set up the alarm, only to notice she has a dozen of missed calls. She quickly looks up at the other bed, only to see it’s empty. She only then notices the noise coming from the bathroom. _Why do I always space out?_ Tobin asks herself once she realizes what probably just happened. Tobin thinks about calling back, since the conversation will be in French her roommate will not be able to understand the exact words that she is saying but Tobin knows (after Kelley pointed it out numerous times) that her way of speaking to Claire is different from the way she speaks to her friends. She decides to send a text instead.

 

Meanwhile, Jill and the rest of the coaching staff sit down and take a moment. Graeme takes out his laptop and wants to start going over some footage.   
“All right. Tomorrow is going to be a long day so why don’t we call it an early night.” She sees Tony’s look “We’ll go over the footage and notes on the flight to Vancouver.”  
The coaches are glad they can get in a full night of sleep but on the other side they would rather go over their notes and the footage to start preparing a game plan.

 

Once everyone has left the room Jill stops packing her stuff and sits down. She takes her laptop back out and calls her family. After the call with her daughter Jill lets her mind wander to the team lifting the trophy in Vancouver. The only thing that is holding back the dream from becoming reality is just one game. She would have preferred having to play against Japan. Even though the Japanese are higher ranked. She feels like she knows their team (and also game plan) better and her players are more familiar with the Japanese style of play.

 

It almost seems impossible the team she watched 10 minutes ago is the same team she’s watching now. Jill has found one consistency though and figures if she can prevent that from happening the US will win gloriously. One thing did bother her, the number 16 seems familiar but Jill cannot quite pin down from where she recognizes the player.


	50. Chapter 50

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Game day

Today is the day, the day they have been looking forward to for the past four years, the day they have envisioned happening a few times these last couple of weeks, the day of the World Cup final.  
Hope looks across the room, Becky is still asleep.  
The keeper thinks about going for a coffee before the team meets up for breakfast. She grabs her phone and thinks about sending Carli a message asking if she would want to come along. But knowing Carli, the midfielder is probably on her pregame run so Hope puts her phone away and sits up. Hope thinks about it for a second to realizes something is wrong.

  
“No, no, no this is not happening. Not again!” Hope silently freaks out while throwing the blankets off her.  
The only thing that keeps Hope back from breaking down is Becky.  
The defender might be sleeping but there is no way Hope would break down, like she would if she let herself at this moment, in front of anyone else.  
While checking her legs she keeps offering things up for just a couple more hours, a couple more hours where she can move her legs. She even says she wouldn’t mind being paralyzed forever if she just can have this day.

Not wanting to give in on what she fears is happening Hope takes the first thing that comes in her line of vision and throws it as hard as she can towards her feet. Hoping she can feel the object hitting her foot.  
She might also have thrown her book out of frustration and not just to check if she could feel it or not.

 

Hope wakes up with a start and sits up. Once recovered from whatever it was that woke her violently Hope looks around. Back is still sound sleeping and she fails to spot any abnormalities in the room. _Why did I woke up?  
_  
Hope spots her blanket on the ground and her book next to her foot, she then remembers something about her legs and quickly tries to move her legs. She lets out a sigh in relieve once she sees her legs moving.  
_It was just a nightmare.  
_ Although she would not have had to check it, her left foot is really hurting. __  
She wiggles her toes, just to be sure and all ten of them are moving.

Although it is still early, way too early to already get out of bed. Hope does not want to go to sleep again, afraid that maybe next time she will wake up paralyzed. The keeper changes outfit and quietly walks out of the room.

Hope has been wandering the hallways for a while, not really sure where to go she even contemplated calling Kelley but figured Kelley really could use some more sleep , when she spots a familiar face.  
“You’re up early.”  
Alex jumps, she did not expect someone else to be up so early on this day.  
“I’m going to physical therapy. What’s our excuse?” The striker replies once she recognizes the keeper.  
Alex saw a flash of something on Hope’s face. But it passed by way too quick for her to figure out what it meant. Maybe if she had been fully awake she would have been able to spot it faster and thus figure out what it means.  
“Can I join you?” Hope asks, completely ignoring the striker’s question.  
“Sure” Alex replies, not really sure why the keeper would want to join her in doing physical training exercises to strengthen her knees and legs. _Ok if you put it like this_ Alex thinks she has a pretty good idea why Hope would want to join.

Since Hope is already supporting some Nike wear she doesn’t have to go back to her room to change. On their way to the training room Alex talks about the exercises she does usually. With today also being game day the striker does change it a bit up and will mainly be busy with some exercises to warm up her knees and legs, nothing to exhausting.

 

 

“You invited Alex to stay with us, or as she said with you, after the end of the NWSL season?”  
Hope completely forgot about Alex and Kelley rooming. She figured she would tell Kelley after breakfast. To be honest she didn’t really think of something that would bother Kelley so she is surprised to hear some disappointment in Kelley’s voice. She didn’t think her girlfriend would mind having Alex around for a couple days.

It’s not like Kelley minds, she had just been looking forward to be able to spend time with her girlfriend again. This was not really a moment to push the keeper about being more open about their relationship towards their teammates, their friends.

 

“Are you mad? I can always tell Alex…” Hope quickly offers.  
“no, no, no” Kelley quickly interjects “I guess I was just hoping I could get some (a lot) alone time with you. I miss having my girlfriend around.”  
Hope can hear the sincerity in Kelley’s voice and she knows they have to talk about it but not now, not at the world cup.  
Kelley catches the look Hope is giving her.  
“We’ll talk about it once we’re back in the States.”  
Kelley pecks Hope on the lips and jogs away, trying to catch the elevator.

 

By the end of breakfast the entire team is invited to come to Kirkland after the NWSL season. But the keeper did emphasize that the main reason why they come together is to do a lot of rehab. So everyone could fully and healthy enjoy their time off in November.

 

After breakfast the team splits up. Some go take a nap, others call or meet their family and others have a strict pregame schedule, some girls are really OCD about those rituals.  
Hope spends some time with her mother and grandmother before meeting up with her old coach Amy Griffin.

  
Kelley spots Hope when the keeper opens the door to the staircase.  
Knowing the chance of someone else also taking the stairs at the exact same moment Kelley quickly makes her walks that way.  
“Are you ok?”   
Hope jumps, she didn’t hear Kelley sneaking up behind her.  
“I’m fine.”  
The fact that Hope didn’t hear her before she spoke lets Kelley know the keeper isn’t fine. Kelley studies Hope and notices the tired look on her girlfriend’s face.  
She raises an eyebrow “You don’t look fine.”  
“I’m just a bit tired that’s all.”

While walking up the stairs Kelley thinks for a moment. If Hope was already wandering the halls before she spotted Alex that meant the keeper has been up for a lot of hours already. That also means something is going on in her keeper’s mind.  
By now they have already reached their floor.  
Hope is glad, if she is fast she won’t have to explain Kelley why she is tired.  
Kelley’s brain on the other hand is still in overdrive.

Before Hope can say a see you later the defender has already grabbed her girlfriend’s hand and drags Hope a couple doors further.  
_I really hope Alex isn’t in our room._

Kelley quickly opens the door to her room and steps aside so Hope can walk in first.  
Hope tries to come up with a plausible explanation.  
Kelley sits down on the bed, leaning against the headboard and signals Hope to come sit with her.  
Hope sits down in front of Kelley and leans back so her back is resting against Kelley.

Kelley puts her arms around Hope and to the keeper’s surprise her girlfriend doesn’t ask her for an explanation, instead she talks about what she did all day, about some stories her family told her.  
It doesn’t take long before Hope is lying with her head in Kelley’s lap. The smaller woman absentmindedly plays with the keeper’s hair and by now she has stopped talking. Not that much later the keeper is fast asleep.

Kelley quickly takes out her phone and sends Tobin a text ‘Can you keep Alex out of her room. Hope was tired and fell as.  
Not even a minute later her phone buzzes ‘Sure. Everything ok with Hope she looked different this morning.’  
‘Think she is having trouble sleeping. Don’t know what is throbbing her but she is passed out now. I just hope she’ll be ok to play.’   
‘You know Hope, even if she is not ok she’ll find a way to play through. I’ll keep Alex away from her room. Take care of your girl and give me a heads up when I can let Alex go.’  
‘I’ll. Thanks u da best!’

Kelley puts her phone away and looks at her girlfriend.   
A couple minutes pass without Kelley noticing. Once she does she’s glad Hope is asleep and no one was watching so she couldn’t be called a creep.  
“What’s going on in that big head of yours?” Kelley wonders out loud.

 

 

The team arrives all prepared and focused at the stadium and is once again surprised by the amount of people that showed up. It doesn’t take the staff  too long to discover they forgot Hope’s gloves. Something they were sure they had brought multiple pairs from.

Ashlyn and Alyssa both offer a pair of their gloves up but Hope politely declines. With the three of them having custom made gloves she doesn’t think it is a good idea to play a World Cup final with a pair of gloves that is fitted for someone else’s hands so she politely declines the offers.  
One of the staff offers to go back to the hotel and get a pair of her gloves but Hope remembers them she always has a reserve pair in her bag.

After having changed into her warming up tenue Hope grabs her bag and searches for her gloves.   
_Why did I have to keep this ones as my reserve gloves?_ Hope thinks but she also has to fight the urge to smile.  
Kelley had been watching the keeper from time to time. She knew Hope always has an extra pair of gloves in her bag so it wasn’t a problem but she couldn’t believe the staff would forget the keeper’s gloves on a day like this.  
_What’s so special about these gloves that they make her want to smile?_  
  


“Hope, You coming?” Ashlyn shouts from across the room.  
“Yeah, I’m ready.”  
The keeper stands up and quickly makes her way to the other goalkeepers.

While walking in the tunnel Hope lets her mind go back to a training at the Algarve Cup, to the first time she used those gloves.

 

“KELLEY MAUREEN O’HARA”  
Kelley stopped dead in her tracks and slowly turns around, while trying to act like she has no idea why Hope would call her out like that. From the tone she knows she is not in real trouble though.  
“What?” Kelley asks, trying to sound innocent.  
Hope holds up her gloves while looking at Kelley.  
“Those are your gloves.”   
“I know they are my gloves, my name is on them . What I don’t know is why a bunch of squirrels are drawn onto them.”  
Ashlyn, who had helped Kelley draw the squirrels makes sure to get out of the other keeper’s line of vision.  
Kelley sees Ashlyn trying not to laugh while she is sneaking away.  
Kelley tries to get the blame off her by asking “Why are you asking me about it?”  
“Because who else would draw squirrels?”  
The rest of the team looks intrigued at the two, wondering what is going on.

 

The two players getting each called by their respective trainer gets Kelley of the hook from any more questions coming from Hope.

 

“They will help you catching balls, and making saves.” Kelley whispers while she walks passed Hope to the rest of the group.

Training was about to begin and Hope had no spare gloves with her on the pitch so she has to wear these ones for now.  
She sees the GK trainer and Alyssa looking weird at her. But Hope acts like nothing is different.   
Ashlyn’s reaction gives her away. She tried to play it cool but forget to act surprised and was so busy trying to act as if nothing was different Hope realized her girlfriend isn’t the only one to blame for the drawings she is supporting on her gloves. Although Hope appeared to be a bit angry (since the gloves are something special for a keeper and you are not allowed to mess with them.) she wasn’t. She liked it because now she could play for her girlfriend. As if every safe she makes is for her girlfriend (not that she needs drawings of squirrels on her gloves for that to be true).

 

At the end of the training;

“Oh and before I forget, I like the new design on your gloves Hope, maybe you should keep them.”  
Jill says, referring to the great training the keeper had.  
Hope did sent Kelley a glare, but Kelley could see the smile in Hope’s eyes so she knew she was good.  
“Thank you, I’ll make sure to tell Harris and O’Hara.” Hope answers with a smile.  


 

The end of the tunnel comes closer, Hope can already feel the energy coming from the supporters.  
The keepers are the first players to walk onto the pitch. It’s incredible. The entire stadium is red white and blue. Ok, maybe not all are supporting for them but it feels that way. The three block out the supporters and start warming up.

Having done their jog, run and sprint exercises the keepers take a short break to drink some water and put on their gloves.   
Ashlyn, who is standing just a couple feet away from Hope, gives Hope a similar expression as she did back in March, this time just a bit more amused.

 

“That’s the pair of gloves you keep as spare??”  
“Yeah. Something wrong with that?” Hope answers   
Ashlyn smirks “Nothing, I just didn’t think you would have kept them.”  


 

The other players jog onto the pitch. With the opponent’s supporters also supporting red shirts it is hard to see which ones are supporting for the US and which ones not. But judging from the volume of US chants, Kelley judges a big part of them are American (or supporting for the US).

 

 

As before all of the other games Hope is the first one to run back into the locker room.  
This time she double checks if her brace is correctly placed.  
So by the time the other players also arrive back in the locker room Hope just finishes putting on her jersey.  
Kelley sends her a worried look but Hope signals everything is ok.  
Having her girlfriend seen wake up in distraught earlier today and seeing she took extra time to adjust her brace Kelley has a pretty good idea what caused Hope’s sleeping problems.

 

Once everyone is ready and the clock is nearing the zero Jill gathers the team.


	51. Chapter 51

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t know why I was thinking writing the final would be a good idea.  
> I’ve rewritten these scenes for at least a hundred times and I’ve come up different tons of different scenarios. I hope you like this one.  
> Some parts are written in French, I didn’t give an exact translation but after the French part I usually have written something similar in English. If you want the exact translation of those French parts, let me know so I can put the translations into the story.  
> For those who speak French, I’m sorry if at times it doesn’t really make much sense I kind of just listened to French commentators and tried to write down what they were saying.  
> Most conversations in this game are between commentators and not between players.

The signal is given and for the last time this tournament Carli leads the team out onto the pitch. Something about this moment is magical. Maybe it is the music, the atmosphere or maybe it is because you only get to play in a tournament like this one once every four years. Or maybe it is the accumulation of all the things surrounding the final that makes this game so special.  
They get to the midfield. Carli is the first one to stop walking and turns around. You can feel the determination in everyone’s high five. They are going to win this game! Once Kling has passed Hope, the keeper diverts her look, to the other side of the field to be exactly. She locks eyes with Kelley for a moment before turning around to face the Stars and Stripes.

 

The Star-Spangled Banner is up first, to the players it feels like every single person in the stadium is singing along. The words resonating through the stadium resonating through Hope’s body got the keeper all pumped up. She is pretty sure though she not the only one who feels this way right now.

 

Once the applause has died down the Brabanconne is played.  
They all remember hearing the exact same two national anthems being played 120 minutes before the USMNT’s dreams were shattered at last year’s Men’s World Cup.

 

This time only a handful of supporters sing along. But the American supports do join in on the applause afterwards. After shaking hands with their opponent, hearing Abby’s last minute pump-up speech Hope makes her way to goal. She puts on her Squirrel gloves and joins her defense for a second to last defensive huddle.

Belgium is the country that starts strong, the team immediately sends a long ball in but their forward cannot get passed the famous brick wall.  
In the beginning it is definitely the Red Flames (= BELWNT) that are trying to get something passed the US defense. But apart from one shot, Hope seemingly saved easily, they could not get a real shot on goal.

 

After a minute the US decides they have let the Belgian players play long enough and take control of the game. Just a few seconds later the ball is on the other side of the pitch. Moe is the one that wins them a corner, immediately sending the signal to the others.  
The team lines up, Carli walks out of the box and Pinoe jogs towards the corner.  
The Belgian players take their place. The keeper makes sure to have each American player inside the box covered by one of her own players. Just to be sure she puts two of her players with JJ.

 

“The colors that dominate the stadium are the red, white and blue of the USA.  
Rapinoe will take the corner kick, played in flat, IT’S IN, IT’S ONE-NIL AND LLOYD ARRIVED FROM DEEP AND THE USA ARE AHEAD IN TWO MINUTES AND THIRTY-EIGHT SECONDS of the world cup final.”  
“Wow that was definitely a training ground move, wasn’t it? I actually thought that was a poor corner kick from Rapinoe, it was just driven along the floor and then Lloyd just runs from deep and excellent finishes into the bottom corner. The US started strong, you always say try and start on their front foot and that is exactly what they have done, they have won themselves a corner and an excellent finish.”  
“Well they lead four yours ago, they lead here in the first three minutes.”

 

The fans cheering, it is just deafening. Carli runs towards the corner to celebrate with the American Outlaws and it doesn’t take too long before she is joined by nine over-excited teammates.

 

The Americans are the favorite to win this game but no one expected Lloyd to score within three minutes. Carli is known to thrive in finals so her scoring was not a big surprise, her scoring twice within a couple of minutes is a surprise.

 

Tobin is running down the sidelines, easily passing the defenders. The last defender manage to take down Tobin before the American can send in the cross. The Belgium team is glad they can take a moment to breathe, a moment to get back into the game.

 

“No one is marking Lloyd on the edge of the box…. LLOYD IS THERE AGAIN AND IT IS TWO NIL FOR THE USA INSIDE FIVE MINUTES.”

This time the midfielder runs towards the sideline to celebrate with the game changers and the coaching staff.

 

In meantime the Belgian team comes together to talk some tactics. Whatever was said, it seemed to help. The Belgian team has woken up and we can see a glimpse of the way they have been playing this entire tournament. They really try but whatever they do, they cannot get through the American defense. The Americans manage to hold their lines in an almost clinical way and manage to prevent their opponents from getting a shot on goal.

 

Meanwhile on the Belgian bench, the players look shocked and in disbelieve, others might describe it more as ashamed or defeated. The way the US is scoring so easily, it’s almost embarrassing  
_Those damn Americans, why do they always need to show up big at important games?_

 

A stellar save from the Belgian goalkeeper prevents the US from scoring 3 times in 10 minutes. Only for her to have to retrieve the ball from the back of the net seconds later, this time after a volley from Cheney off a half clearance of the Belgian defense.

 

“Belgium is in total shock. They don’t know what to do defensively, they don’t know what to do offensively. It’s because this United States team has confidence, they are playing so well in every aspect of the game. The defense got them to this point but the offense is the reason they are going to win today.”

 

The team jogs back to their half of the pitch. The USWNT and fans are in shock, is this really happening? Are they 3-0 ahead in a world cup final after just 12 minutes?

 

Meanwhile on the Belgian bench.  
“Coach, put me in.”  
With any other player this would have been reason enough to never play with the team again. But with her the coach just responds “No. I can’t.” He had seen his player, and friend, struggling getting in enough oxygen the previous night so he decided to keep her on the bench. He knew if he would put her in now there is no way she would make it till the end of the game and he couldn’t afford to have to substitute a substitute. Before the Belgian player can come up with another reason why she should be subbed in, the USWNT strikes again. Lloyd spots the Belgian goalkeeper off her line, after all they are still on the American side of the pitch. Carli shoots the ball, the keeper tries to get back, she gets a touch on it but not enough to prevent the ball from rolling over the goal line.

 

4-0 USA.

 

Carli stands still for a moment, not believing that shot really went in and not really knowing where to run to this time to celebrate. The midfielder realizes she is on the American side of the pitch and not even a second later she takes off. She had already celebrated with the fans, with the other field players, the game changers and coaching staff. Now it is time to celebrate with her best friend.  
Hope, who had already been standing outside her box, spots her friend running towards her and decides to meet her halfway.  
The two hug, soon joined by Pinoe, who in typical Pinoe fashion jumps onto them, and their other teammates arrive shortly after. Jill and the others are looking at replay on the large screen. The play is just unbelievable, they can see the Belgian keeper scrambling to get back. But she is just too far off her line to be able to make that save.

 

 

“Yes you can. You have to, we didn’t come this far only to be humiliated by the US.” I wanted to add a few more things but figured those might only hurt my case so I leave them unspoken.  
The coach looks at the play and knows she is right. The team is clearly struggling to keep with the USWNT’s way of play. But he also had to think about his player’s health.  
“I’m fine” I breathe in and out a couple times, to show him I really am ok.

  
  
“Ok, but hold back till the end of the first half, We need you till the end of the game. I cannot spend another substitute on you.”  
I nod, already taking off my FIFA _What is it called again? It is not called a shirt ..whatever, you know what I mean,_ those irritating yellow FIFA things all substitute players are obliged to wear.  
“The moment you feel something is wrong you signal me. This game, like any other, is not worth risking your health for.” He says seriously but with hushed voice, not wanting the microphones to pick up this conversation.  
I nod again but simply in an attempt to get him to hurry up so I can step onto the pitch.  
“I’m serious Luce. This is not something worth d-.” He stops mid-sentence, not wanting to say the last part of it out loud. Instead he just adds “Be careful and show them what we are worth.”  
“I promise, I’ll do.” I answer him, looking him into the eye with a smile on my face.

 

  
The coach looks at his player, he knows chances of her really holding back are about as big as the probability of them winning this game.

 

 

A few moments later Luce stands at the side line. The Belgian crowd wakes up, not necessarily because they know Van Steen but more so because they hope this might bring a change in their team’s play.  
Given the situation the USWNT isn’t shocked to see the Belgian coach make a substitution this early in the game.

 

“It looks like number 16 Van Steen will come in number 14 Martens.”  
“She is coming in for a forward. Do you have an idea what position she will play today?”  
“She has played multiple positions this tournament, never as a full forward though so I think the Belgian coach put her in to make the Belgian defense stronger and just do damage control, make sure the US is not able to score any more goals.”  
“I really hope Belgium will show up for the rest of the game, otherwise it will be a boring and painful seventy plus minutes to watch.”

 

Van Steen holds Martens back for a moment and says something to the player she is being subbed in for. The fourth official tells Luce to hurry up, not liking the fact the Belgian player takes her time to get onto the pitch.  
But the Belgian player is not going to set foot onto the pitch until she is sure her teammate does not blame herself for them trailing 0-4.

 

A smirk forms on Hope lips, she knows things will definitely change now.  
Jill can see the Belgian team change from the moment Van Steen jogs onto the field. She had seen the impact on the team’s confidence the player has brought in previous games. Jill isn’t too happy with this substitution. She has seen the signs, she knows her team is starting to fall asleep, defenders sitting too high up the field, midfielders and forwards not coming back at all. The coach gets off the bench and walks to the sidelines, shouting at her players while silently cursing the American fans for being so goddamn loud. After a few tries she walks back to the bench, knowing there is no way she will be able to out shout the American Outlaws.

 

Kelley leans a bit more forward, curious as to what is going to happen. She, like the others, has watched all the games Belgium played in this tournament. At first sight Luce didn’t seem that important. A mediocre player that most of the times came in as a second half sub. But as Hope pointed out, it are not always the players with the most spectacular plays that have the biggest impact on the team, on the game. Sometimes a player that anticipates the play and seemingly makes easy plays is better than one who has to pull off an acrobatic stunt to make or save the play. Something about the fact that Luce and Hope seem to know each other really well makes Kelley suspect Luce is a better player than they might have thought.

 

It’s hard to stay focused and to be willing to push through at this moment, the US already up 4-0, but there are still more than 70 minutes to be played so everything is possible. The USWNT once again attacks, this time the play gets interrupted by a Belgian midfielder who scoops the ball away from Cheney. The Belgian defender takes a look up and quickly sends the ball away.

 

In the Belgian commentating booth, the commentator is already getting pumped up,  
“Premier ballon pour Van Steen.  
Et elle passe. Elle est passée, Van Steen.  
Ça va-t-elle mettre en confiance.  
Du Bois qui est seule. Van Steen, Van Steen qui passe, Du Bois récupère. Il y a de nouveau un mur blanc.  
Du Bois force et GOOOOOOAAAALLLL" the Belgian commentator screams into the microphone like they just scored the winning goal, while in reality they still have to score three more to even get level with the US.

 

 

Luce’s first touch wasn’t a good one, but it was good enough to get passed Klingenberg. Hope, focused on the player who is sprinting towards her, does notice some other players making the run towards her box from the other side of the pitch. Luce passes the ball to a teammate. Hope didn’t expect that but she was prepared for it so she quickly shifts a bit more to the middle of her goal. JJ and Becky are desperately trying to bunker in the Belgian forward. But Du Bois takes a few touches, manages to turn and shoots the ball just out of Hope’s reach into the bottom corner.

 

 

The Belgian team celebrates, they finally found a way passed the brick wall. Although they should not be celebrating this big since they are still three goals behind, they don’t mind. For a moment they celebrate like they just won the world cup and savor the moment of them scoring in a world cup final against the USWNT.

 

Hope is pissed she didn’t make the save. Granted it would have been difficult (more like impossible) but she was so close to making the save. If her hands had been like an inch longer she might have been able to get enough of a flick on the ball to get it to deflect off the goalpost.

 

Kelley looks at her keeper, she can see Hope blaming herself for letting in that goal. It pains her, not that this goal is risking their chances of winning the world cup, they are still 3 goals ahead. It is just, they were so close to the shutout record and after everything Hope (and the team) had been through Kelley really wanted to get them that record. _Guess we will have to stick around for another 4 years to make sure we get that record._ But she also knows the keeper is way too professional to let it affect her game. Hope takes a sip water, when she turns around Kelley can see she is over the fact that she got scored on and her mind is once again focused on the game.

 

A minute later and the defense once again finds itself trying to catch Du Bois.  
“ca c’est bon, Allez Smets ….aussi Du Bois de l’autre côté, la balle lui arrive, Laure Du Bois sur le dos, ELLE TIRE-” the French commentator  
“Hope Solo saved it !!” The Fox commentator shouts, if she would have been in the same room as her French colleague, she would have interrupted him.

 

Hope watches the red shirt running towards her, blocking the white shirts that are trying to get back from her mind. She moves a bit, trying to minimalize the shooting angle of her opponent.  
She spots the Belgian player swing her leg back. Hope is already shifting her weight, ready to jump.  
“HOPE SOLO SAVED IT” the FOX commentator yells in disbelieve.  
The Belgian team is really bummed with Hope making the save, they had hoped to score second goal.  
“The Belgian forward cannot believe Hope made that save.” She says once she sees the Belgian player throwing her arms up in disbelieve and probably also some frustration.

 

 

Kelley, as do some of the other game changers, jumps of the bench and just cannot contain her excitement. She feels so proud and joins in on the round of applause the fans are giving their keeper. After Hope has send the ball back into play Becky is quick to pat Hope on the shoulders, her way of saying thank you and apologize at the same time. With Du Bois coming from deep, the defense let her wide open, giving her a free pass for a shot on goal.

 

Meanwhile Krieger gets her jets once again working and sprints alongside the sideline, easily leaving the Belgian forwards and midfielders behind her.  
“Krieger storming forward from defense, Morgan has come to the near post and there is Carli Lloyd. OOH BIG OPPORTUNITY AND IT STAYS OUT.”

 

 

“Janssens pour Du Bois, avec Van Steen, les grandes jambes de Van Steen. Du Bois, qui va temporiser,  Van STEEEEEN et c’est gooaal”

4-2

The second goal comes after a fast counter attack from Belgium, catching the US (mainly the outside backs who got caught forward, leaving Becky and JJ as only defenders) by surprise. Luce’s perfectly timed run followed by a shot, Hope had not chance saving, makes the score four to two.

 

 

After the goal, Luce slowly jogs back to their side of the pitch. She had to dig really deep to make that sprint. Her head is spinning, it feels like she is going to explode her head feels way too hot and her heartbeat is having a competition with the amount of searches google processes every minute. She has to focus on the lines for a second to steady herself. The player smells at her shirt, the aroma she had put on it is barely registered by her brain, but after a second or two she feels like more oxygen is coming into her body.

 

 

Already 6 goals scored in under 30 minutes of play, what a game. After Belgium scored the two goals, the us is playing catch up. The treat no longer (directly) comes from Van Steen, who has to hold back if she wants to make it till the half time mark, but it comes from the entire team. They realized their teammate is right. They made it, against all odds, to the final, they beat the defending world champs and already scored twice today. They have nothing to lose so instead of playing the defensive game like they did in the beginning they just go full out in the attack. Also with them scoring twice they realized that the USWNT, like every other team, consist out of normal people, people with strengths but most importantly people with flaws. The team is not unbeatable. The brick is not unbeatable, not even Hope Solo is unbeatable.

 

 

For the next couple minutes it looks like they are playing a replay of the USMNT vs Belgium match at last year’s World Cup. The players in red throwing everything they have at the American team but nothing gets passed Hope (who is just playing the game of her life). The keeper having some help form the crossbar and off course she can still count on Becky.  
Kelley, as the others, cannot believe the saves the keeper is making. _Maybe it is not so bad to have Luce on the opposing team_ Kelley thinks while remembering the extra drive she had at the Sky Blue game she played against Tobin. _Let’s just hope Luce is not that competitive as Hope._  
With the US having to defend for the first time since the game against Australia things don’t go so well. The players are constantly trying to play catch up.    
For now it is the Belgium vs Hope Solo and Becky Sauerbrunn show.

 

Hope does not know how many saves she made, but she is trying to get a hold of her backline and her other players.  
She steers them into the right position but Belgium is quick to adapt and with Luce seemingly being everywhere the ream is in a constant battle, trying to catch up.

 

Luce takes the challenge Becky throws at her a couple times. She loses some, she wins some. Since she did lose the bigger part the Belgian player tries to steer clear of Becky.

 

A shot is once again coming her way, the keeper is already flying through the air. This time the ball bounces off the crossbar. Becky is fast to clear the ball out of the box. While Carli and Alex take the ball to the other side of the pitch Hope quickly tries to get some confident in her rookie defenders. With every shot that has been on frame Hope could see them becoming less confident. But the worst thing was they started thinking, started doubting their every move. Resulting in them being just a second too late and having to once again try to catch up.

 

 

Cheney is out of breath, she has been trying to chase down Luce and the other Belgian players.  
For a moment she wonders how the Belgian player does it. She is already out of breath and cannot fathom what Luce is feeling, taking into account that the Belgian player’s heath is in worse condition than hers. But Luce’s advantage is that she has lived with it longer, so she knows how to mentally put herself over the symptoms. She knows you can get a long way if you just believe you are fine, if you believe you can hold on for just a couple more minutes.

 

 

“Et maintenant Solo face à Van Steen- ” The commentator already getting excited feeling this might be the chance to score another goal.  
“HOPE SOLO SAVED IT” the American commentator shouts out. Not believing the keeper really managed to keep that ball out of the nets. Not even a minute later, “the assault waves continue and Sauerbrunn to the rescue”

 

 

Hope throws the ball back into play. She catches a glimpse of her gloves and for a moment she wonders if Kelley might be right, maybe the squirrels really help catch her balls. She smirks _how desperate am I, thinking some drawings on my gloves help me making these saves._ But Hope can’t shake the feeling she has Kelley right next to her. She can feel the same energy and motivation her girlfriend was giving her a while back in her quest to make her come back, to get out of that wheelchair.

 

 

Cheney doesn’t know what it is but the Belgian player always seems to disappear. She wasn’t the only one struggling with this, the entire backline is too, Luce popped up a few times behind them and made a run towards goal. But luckily they have Hope who did a stellar job of keeping the score at 4-2.  
The midfielder slows down a bit, taking some deep breathes and letting her heartrate slow down.

 

 

 “Belgium do look dangerous, Lloyd defending, Belgium pushing hard, Smets has set it all up with a great pass. But it rolls out of bounce.”

 

After what felt like an eternity but in reality was only 10 minutes or so the US is coming back into the game. Belgium tries to push harder but whatever they throw at the USA. Their opponents still manages to make their comeback. Belgium slows down a bit, knowing they have to preserve some energy for later if they want a shot at winning this game, allowing the game to level out. This does not mean the game got any less spectacular, interesting or nerve wrecking to watch. It just means that both team have equal opportunities to score but neither manages to do so.

 

Her legs are on fire and her lungs are screaming for air when all of a sudden everything becomes dead silent but Luce wants her team to go into halftime trailing only one goal behind so instead of slowing down to catch her breathe she pushes through. She gets the ball from Laure and for a moment it is like she is a kid again, running barefoot with a ball at her feet while commenting how she is beating players like Mia Hamm, July Foudy, Kate Markgraf “Luce gets passed Fawcett, she is one on one with Brianna Scurry. She takes the shot and GOOOOAALL” The girl runs around with outstretched arms, celebrating the goal. Only this time it is real, not the part about going up against Hamm, Foudy, Margraf, Fawcett or Scurry, but the goal. The goal is real.

 

 

Less than a minute before the halftime whistle Belgium had found a way to put in another goal.  
Luce’s teammates catch their celebrating teammate. They are all jumping and screaming. At least she thinks they are screaming, Luce can see their lips moving but her mind is still not registering any sound. She knows she’ll have to slow down otherwise she might faint and that is not something she wants to do right now.

 

Luce is walking back towards midfield once again trying to get a scent of the aroma while telling herself she is just fine. She can feel the USA chants vibrating though the stadium and slowly she starts to get herhearing back.

 

Hope slams her fist (but not too hard) into the turf. Angry at herself for letting another one in. She then grabs the ball and throws it to JJ who passes it to Carli who is waiting once again at the kick-off spot. _Luce’s ankle is even worse than Amy’s._  
She knows her friend can turn her ankle into all different kind of angles, making it almost impossible to get a good read on it, but for some reason she hoped today would be different.

 

The USWNT is relieved to finally hear the halftime whistle. They are urged to run into the locker room. Jill quickly writes down some last minutes thoughts and makes her way to the American locker room.  
Luce, like her teammates, jogs inside. But unlike her teammates Luce jogs passed the team’s locker room, she rounds the corner and walks into a small room, locking the door behind her.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> While writing and re-writing this chapter I have thought about many scenarios, sticking with the same score as in reality or going for a totally different story. But I wanted to make things a bit more interesting.  
> I know I have already told you guys a couple of times I would explain the whole ‘Luce thing’ but this time I finally found a good place to do so. So I promise you, you’ll know some more about the kind of relationship between Luce and Hope before the USWNT players play their first NWSL as world cup champions. I hope you enjoyed the chapter and I do promise I’ll put up the next chapter faster.


	52. Was it the American or the Belgian player?

Jill gives Kelley the signal to warm up, Belgium might have put in their wildcard but so can she.  
A few minutes later Kelley stands at the sideline, ready to enter the game.  
Many fans, reporters and probably some other people wonder why the American coach waited until Belgium scored the equalizer to make a change.  
Jill, she just writes a couple things in her notebook and gets up to walk to the sideline.

In meantime, Pinoe runs towards the sideline. Upon hearing the applause she raises her hands and returns the favor to the fans. This is not entirely how she imagined celebrating her birthday. But there are still over 30 minutes on the clock left. Over thirty minutes to score a goal and to bring the World Cup trophies back to the USA, over thirty minutes to bring it back home.  
She briefly hugs Kelley before the Stanford grad runs onto the pitch while shouting some of the last minute instructions Jill gave her. On her way to the bench Pinoe is greeted by the head coach. Even though Jill tells her she did fine Pinoe is a bit disappointed. She liked to have done better than fine. Not that she wanted a repeat of the fame she got of the 2011 Brazil game, she isn’t quite sure her heart would survive another game like that but she did wanted to have had a bigger impact on the game. A goal would have been amazing but an(other) unforgettable assist would also have done the job.

 

Tobin was already jogging towards her favored side of the pitch but upon hearing Kelley’s instructions she turns around and returns to the right side of the pitch. Kling is happy with having some more help on the defensive side. Not that she doesn’t like playing with Pinoe in front of her, it is just in a game like this it is nice to have someone on your side who helps her defend. The team shares an understanding look, they all get into position and wait for Belgian goalkeeper to take the goal kick.

 

The chants gets just a bit louder and knowing what Kelley had contributed in the previous two games the fans inch closer to the tip of their seat. But the first threat comes from the right side of the pitch.  
“This is Ali Krieger, she is so dangerous when she gets to the end line. A good cross in, unfortunately for Alex the keeper just gets enough of a deflection on it for the ball to fly over the crossbar.” The forward is disappointed in herself, the cross in had been almost perfect. All she had to do was give a little tap to it and the ball would have ended up in the back of the net but no, she had to kick the ball right at the goalkeeper. Realizing she did had to thank her teammate, Alex gives Krieger a thumbs up while the both of them jog back towards midfield and the supports sit back down.

 

With the arrival of Kelley into the game, Luce not only had to stay back, to help out the defense, she also needs to make longer runs back and fore, resulting in her having to slow down almost immediately. Her heartrate is sky high and she knows she’ll not be able to do this for the remaining of the game, forcing the team to also change tactics. So not only did the presence of Kelley on the pitch helps the USA it also sabotaged the play the Belgian coach was hoping to run.

 

The USA slowly begins their way back up to domination. They first make sure the Belgian team doesn’t get any shots off on goal. Once they have figured that out Kelley and Tobin switch places and the team transitions into its preferred attacking mode. Kelley and Ali combine better than Tobin and  Ali. Maybe it is the Irish-Ali combination or maybe it is because of the rookie’s ability to go forward and score goals as her ability to defend enables Ali to go forward, knowing Kelley has the right side on a lockdown. This kind of make them a lethal duo, the Belgian defense never knowing which one of the two will make the run (or even both).

  
But it is the left side that eventually gets people at home sitting on the tip of their chair ready to jump up,  fans at the bar to stop drinking their beer and still holding them mid-air, commentators to talk faster and with more passion.

 

Then people jumping and screaming, at the bar people forgot they were still holding their drinks resulting in beer and all other kind of drinks to fly everywhere.

 

Tobin runs in circles for a few seconds before she decides what direction she is going to run. She doesn’t get far though, soon she finds herself at the bottom of a dogpile. If they could have, the American game changers would have run onto the field to join in on the celebration. But instead they are all just jumping up and down along the side line. Not surprisingly Jill and (more surprisingly) Dawn are seen jumping up and down. The two English women do return to their calmness pretty quick and settle for high fiving whoever is around them.

 

“GOOOOOOOOOOOO-“ the Spanish commentator still hasn’t finished screaming goal by the time Tobin is helped back up onto her two feet by Kelley.

 

 “If you are going to score your first world cup goal, it might as well be like that.”

 

A typical Tobin Heath style goal, after a pass from Carli she waltzed her way through the Belgian defense, coming up 1v1 against the Belgian goalkeeper and perfectly slotting the ball into the back of the net.

 

The chants in the stadium are just deafening and continue on while the players take their positions.  
Not knowing what to say first, the American commentators are speechless for a moment.

 

“It all started with Krieger winning that ball deep in the American half and sending it towards Carli Lloyd. You can see Morgan noticed those two Belgian players kind of man marking her and with her continuing her run, she freed up some space for Carli to be able to make that pass through to Tobin who just finishes it perfectly.”

  
  
In the 70th minute a Belgian defender goes down, after a hard tackle from Carli, and stays down. She does get back up after a while but limps a bit, the coach looks at Luce. She gives him the thumbs up and he thinks about it for a second before making his last sub. He wanted to keep that one for Luce, if necessary, but he’s not risking another player’s health just in case Luce has to be subbed out. He shouts at the number 7 to quickly warm up. Meanwhile the injured player is escorted off the pitch by the medical staff.

The substitute player stands ready at midfield but the fourth official tells her to wait.

The Americans try to score another goal. They get lucky though. Cheney loses the ball after a slip near midfield and the ball is quickly taken by a red shirt, sprinting towards Hope with 3 teammates running besides her. Since previous to Cheney’s slip the US was on a break towards the Belgian goal both outside backs were also sprinting forward. Thus leaving JJ and Becky alone to cover four red shirts.  
“Look at all the space she has”  
JJ makes her way towards the Belgian player but JJ’s opponent quickly passes to her teammate, who has only Sauerbrunn and Solo standing between her and the back of the net.  
“Ooh and the US got away with that. They really did and Lauren Holiday is the most relieved woman in a US shirt” the commentator says after Becky blocked the ball from even getting near Hope or the goal.

 

Cheney had been running all over the pitch this game, at half time they talked about Van Steen, about her position. Or better lack of it, it seemed she didn’t really have a position you could find her on top but also in defense. Although ever since Kelley came into the game the Belgian player seemed to sit in a deeper position. But right now, she is once again chasing the Belgian player.  
Luce was on a break towards goal, she had a few options right and in the center but before she could cross the ball, it gets taken away by Ali, who sends it quickly to Cheney. On her way back to midfield Luce takes a few deep breathes, glad she reapplied the aroma on her jersey during halftime.

 

Unfortunately for Tobin, Jill still goes through with her plan, and with less than twenty minutes to go she sees the fourth official holding up a ‘red number seventeen supporting’ substitution board. The midfielder makes her way to the sideline. She gets a unbelievable loud applause. She tells herself the applause is mainly for Abby, who is coming into the game, and not for her. Like Pinoe, Tobin also thanks the fans in her way to the side line.

 

The head coach is really bummed she had to take out Tobin, especially after the goal she scored. She had looked at the formation for quite some time and looked for someone else she could take out. Cheney had been struggling from time to time to keep up with the play so she was also a candidate to get subbed out. But in the end the safest option was to take out Tobin. Since this is also the way they practiced it in trainings. Tobin is quickly greeted with hugs and congratulations from all of her teammates. But they all, including Tobin, didn’t want to miss too much of the game. Stating they still could congratulate Tobin on her first world cup goal later, after the final whistle is blown.

 

Alex is the next one to get taken out of the game. Like Pinoe she is also a bit disappointed in herself. Feeling she could have done so much more than the offside goal she scored, the few almost goals and the two or two times the referee decided she was offside while she clearly wasn’t anywhere near being offside. Although she hates not being on the pitch when they officially become World Champions, she also kind of feels honored to be subbed out for Christie Rampone. After all Cap deserves to be on the pitch when the referee finally blows that whistle. The applause Cap and Alex get resembles the applause Tobin and Abby got but if you ask Alex she’ll tell you the applause for Tobin was way more loud. Much like Carli giving the captain’s armband to Abby when the forward enters the game, Abby passes the armband to Christie.

 

In the next few minutes there are a lot of chances for both sides.

“Brian. Brian, Krieger overlapping. The cross towards WAMBACH and Smets did enough in the air, to make sure Abby Wambach didn’t get to the end of that.”

 

“Ooh Van Steen again, she has been a bundle of trouble since she has come on.”  
If you listen to any of the Belgian commentators they will tell you the exact same thing, only difference is they would be talking about Kelley and not about Luce.  
“Good recovery from Meghan Klingenberg”

 

They didn’t expect the sky cam to be taken down by a bird strike. Nor did they expect the transmit cable of the cameraman, who is rushing towards the American side of the pitch to cover for the sky cam getting stuck between two metal plates of the bench and maybe the cameraman should have listened to the advice his mom has given him when he was younger, to not pull something that is jammed but rather gently take it out as close to the point where it jammed as possible, resulting in him accidentally getting the cable cut in two. This all resulted in the unhappiness and frustration from many people. Apart from the few people who are sitting close to the American box no one has any clue as to how things went down. The only thing they had seen was a Belgian and an American player going down in the American box. They hadn’t seen the actual tackle because of the bad angle and distance of the camera to the play. They all just hoped it was the Belgian player who committed the fault and not the American. Well that is off course not all, in Belgium they were calling for a penalty.

 

The director is surprisingly calm he quickly lets the midfield camera take over while he sends someone else to cover. He looks at all the screens in front of him, screaming fans, players coming together around the two players involved in the ‘tackle’ , players screaming to the referee and sees commotion in the American box, off course he missed it, probably the most important play of the game and he missed it. He knows the after the referee has blown the last whistle he’ll never direct another live event ever again. That is if he’s lucky. If he is unlucky than he’ll find a text on his phone telling him to pick up his stuff at the office before Tuesday. “Camera 2” and just like that he switches the camera feed that is shown on tv, only now being able to show what is happening in the American box in close up.

 

It’s chaos, no one really knows what is going on. Players are going for Luce and Ali, others go after the referee, bench players from both teams are up on their feet, fans are booing. “Is this going to be another game rigged and determined by the referee?” One of the commentators dares to say. According to him, Van Steen clipped her own ankle and took Ali down with her. A few rooms further another commentator is furious, stating Krieger should have gotten a red card instead of a yellow one.

 

The Belgian team comes together near midfield. Meanwhile Christie and Cheney are trying to prevent their teammates from getting booked. Becky is solely focused on keeping Abby away from the referee. So in the end it is just Carli and Hope arguing with the referee. It’s actually more like Carli arguing with the ref, while for the keeper apart from some low key protesting, Hope’s main concern is to calm down Carli.

 

Van Steen makes her way back to the referee, who is joined by Christie. Before she gets there she is met with a very angry Carli Lloyd. The midfielder had received already numerous warnings so Becky, who somehow got Abby to calm down, is quick to divert the midfielder’s path to avoid what would have been an inevitable booking if it had come to a confrontation between Carli and Luce.

 

Hope glares at the Belgian player for a second before turning around and making her way to her goal, letting Christie deal with the referee. Meanwhile another American player walks passed Luce, turning to her while saying “That was not Krieger’s fault and you know it.” since the referee is looking their way the American player continues her walk.

 

Hope takes another sip from her water bottle. She knows Van Steen, she has studied her. Not that the Belgian player has taken many pk’s in games.  
The keeper tries to ignore the pushing between players of the two teams on top of her box.  
But she does notices the referee singling out some players and talking to them. Probably giving them some kind of caution or warning to stop pushing. Hope diverts her gaze, Luce is sitting next to the ball, tying her shoelaces. She notices the yellow color of Luce’s  cleats don’t really match the design of the cleat. _Weird._ The keeper puts her bottle down in the goal. Meanwhile, seconds are ticking away.

 

The referee finally takes in her place. Kelley looks at her keeper for a moment, Hope 100 percent focused, before letting her gaze rest on the ball.  
Luce places the ball on the PK spot, without looking at anyone in particular she takes a few steps back. She waits for the referee, eyes on the ball.

 

Luce hasn’t taken that many PK in games, but she has taken a ton on Hope in training. Today, Hope doesn’t get a read of her. The keeper waits a bit longer before making a move, hoping she can make a read on Luce’s movement before she has to make her own move.

 

The whistle is blown, and it is dead silent, mostly because the fans are in shock and forget to protest.

 


	53. medals and trophies

It’s dead silent in the stadium, everyone is looking at Van Steen and Hope. Christie doesn’t want a repeat of the 2011 Brazil game so this time she makes sure to wait for Van Steen to kick the ball before sprinting into the box. The Belgian player looks up just before she takes the first step. In films this would all happen in slow motion but if you ask Kelley she will tell you that sure as hell is not the case.

 There are no players jumping, no players hugging each other, no congratulating Hope. Instead the players just stand there in shock. The next thing Kelley’s mind registers is the applause and cheering coming from the stands. It takes another second or two for the American players to realize Van Steen kicked the ball out on purpose.

Ali looks in shock at the Belgian player all she gets in return is a simple nod.  
The Belgian team jogs together back to their side of the pitch.

  
The clock is still ticking so they still have to keep playing, Hope kicks the ball back into play.

5 seconds later a Belgian defender is chasing Krieger, Luce’s words resonating in her head _Do whatever you have to do but do not let Krieger get that cross in_. She goes into a hard tackle, taking down Ali. The fans booing,  not only did they all knew that Krieger had something big coming they also didn’t want to see their defender get hurt. But since it was a ‘clean tackle’ the referee didn’t blew the whistle. The red shirts don’t have the ball for long though. Kelley performs one of her (by now famous) side tackles and scoops the ball away. Seeing her opponents didn’t count on her winning the ball back Kelley jumps up, takes a few touches and shoots the ball. It was a good enough shot to get the hopes of all the American fans up. But just like in the China game the ball gets a deflection and flies too high, scraping the upper part of the crossbar. If that shot would have ended up in the back of the net it would have secured the win for the US, no way Belgium would be able to score two goals with just a couple seconds left on the clock.

 

Luce sees the players looking at the screen, wondering how many more seconds would have to pass before the referee blows the final whistle. In meantime, Kelley could have sworn she heard something along the lines of Abby Wambach’s famous “It only takes one shot! One chance! All it takes is one!” One chance is all they need to equalize. Not that the Belgian team has to win to write history. Even playing in a world cup final is already a huge achievement for them.

 

Bench players from both teams are up on their feet. The Belgian’s to tell their teammates everything is still possible while on the other side you have the American players and the coaching staff all lined up on the sideline. Encouraging their teammates to hold onto the lead and they are ready to sprint onto the pitch once the final whistle is blown. The Belgians with another run towards goal. Luce quickly glances at the referee, who is reaching for the whistle. Luce takes another touch to get passed Klingenberg, she is in a pretty good spot to get off a shot but before she can take that shot, her mind has already registered the sound of the whistle. She can hear the US fans screaming, she knows it’s too late but shoots the ball anyway.

With the bench players running onto the pitch, Carli falling onto her knees, and Jill jumping up and down, no one is really focused on the ball, well that is no one except Hope and Becky. The keeper jumps towards the upper-right corner. Some of the crowd must have seen the ball was still in the air and they all got really quiet. Not sure if it still counts or not.  
  
Another loud eruption of sheers when Hope pushes the ball over the frame. The keeper was pretty sure it wouldn’t have counted anyways but she did not wanted to take that risk. Before she can get back up onto her feet Hope is swamped by her teammates.  
The American team had changed heading once they spotted their keeper making the safe.

 

Kelley first comes across Tobin they hug and they scream and they, they don’t really know what they are doing. Seeing her friend looking at her keeper Tobin sends Kelley to Hope. Hope pats JJ on the back and starts walking, eyes focused on Kelley. She kind of ignores her teammates but there is only one person she wants to celebrate with right now. It takes too long so Kelley starts running towards Hope. The keeper is ready to catch her and afterwards she spins Kelley a few times around.  
 Tobin is celebrating with Alex, but does notice Hope and Kelley having a moment. That moment is interrupted by the head coach, wanting to hug the keeper. She really deserved that hug today.

 

Kelley swerves from one player to another. It is also the first time she looks at the Belgian squad. She expected them to be devastated, as the US team was back in 2011,but the players are celebrating in their corner, running around, smiling and laughing like they won the Cup. Kelley smiles, it isn’t really the American mentality to celebrate like that after losing a game but the American player thought they deserve to celebrate like this. After all they did just become the second best team of the world.

 

Soon she finds herself shaking hands with the officials and their opponents. She could see that deep down a lot of the players where sad to come this close to winning the world cup but ending up one goal short.  

 

Hope shakes hands with Luce “What was that last shot for?”  
The look on Luce’s face makes Hope add “It wasn’t to make me look good, was it?”.  
“I have no idea what you are talking about” Luce says with a smirks and continues shaking her opponents hands. Truth be told, Luce had taken the shot to save her own ass. She knows not taking the PK will cause a lot of commotion (back in Belgium). And she hopes with taking that shot she might have proven them that she did wanted to win the game. Even though the referee ehad already blown the whistle now she had proven that either way Hope would have made the safe. Hope shakes her head.  
_“_ Solo”  
Hope looks at her friend  
“It was never a fair battle”  
The keeper looks confused not really knowing what her friend …  
The forward nods her heads to the gloves “You had some extra help out there today.”  
Hope looks at the squirrels on her gloves and smiles. Carli looks confused at the duo, she had no idea Hope and that Belgium player are friends.

 

Carli and Hope are the taken apart for the individual awards. Hope quickly gives her gloves to Ryan, telling him to not let them out of his sight, stating this is not a pair of gloves she wants to lose. The look in her eyes make Ryan hold them really thigh while promising to keep them close. Kelley watches her girlfriend walk onto the stage.

She knows both players, if asked, will say they value the team effort (World Cup Trophy) over the individual award. But Kelley also knows that with all that has happened these past two years, this golden glove does mean a lot to Hope. Hopefully it will also take away all the doubts she still has about her ability to ever make a full comeback. Hope quickly passes the award to Ryan, who is still holding her regular gloves. The American squad forms an honor guard for their opponents. After what they did. The American’s have the upmost respect for the Belgian team. While it might be a recurring something at non important games, a stunt like that isn’t regularly pulled in international games and certainly not in a World Cup final. Kelley thinks about it for a moment, _Would I have done the same?_ She doesn’t know, maybe she’ll be able to have an opinion after reviewing the footage to get a clear view on what really happened.    
First the Belgian players receive their silver medals.  
Then it is our turn, Carli is the first one that gets the golden medal. She didn’t wanted to be the first one but her teammates insist on her going first.

 

Hope stands at the end of the line.  
“Ooh no, you are not allowed to stand here”  
The keeper looks confused at her girlfriend, “why not?”  
“Because the only people that hanging back are Christie and Abby.”  
Hope still didn’t get what her girlfriend is trying to tell her.  
“You cannot stand here because you are not going to retire” and with that Kelley steers Hope a few  yards forward. She positions the keeper right behind Cheney “You only get to retire after we have won a fourth star.” Kelley gets out before she is dragged away by Syd.  
Hope smiles, truth be told she hadn’t thought about retiring. But none the less Kelley is right, she isn’t ready yet to hang up her cleats yet.

The queue keeps moving and soon Hope finds herself stepping (for a second time) onto the platform. Cheney just received her medal and she is up next. The next thing they have to do is wait for Abby and Cap. Everyone, including Hope, is talking. They are nervous and anxious to receive the trophy. On one side Kelley is happy to have been standing more in the front, meaning she had to wait less long before she was handed the golden medal. But it also implies she has to wait longer on the platform. So while Abby and Christie are getting their hugs from Sunil, Kelley and Alex are already talking out loud about lifting the trophy. The two captains are handed the trophy “One, Two, Three”, the two lift the trophy up and the team as well as the fans just scream and yell.

Hope doesn’t really know who (not that it matters) scream “WE ARE WORLD CHAMPIONS, BITCHES” but whoever said it is right _Damn right, we are world champions!!_

After everyone has gotten to touch the trophy and some are already starting to make their way to Aaron, who is holding the world cup winners t-shirt, Kelley steps onto the higher platform and walks towards Hope. The rookie pulls Hope back and kisses Hope on top of her head. Hope turns around surprised. She would love to be able to kiss her girlfriend but knows now is not the time to do so. If it would have been possible Hope’s smile would have gotten bigger. Now Hope just holds Kelley’s hands for a second. Kelley squeezes Hope’s hand, a sign she understands.

 

The American players part ways, some are over at the family section, others are chasing their children, then you have a couple players who are just sitting down and taking it all in, and some who do a combination off all.

 

After the medal ceremony Luce walks by Hope  “Hope to see you after celebrating” and with that she is gone. It is only when Luce is a couple yards away Hope notices Luce handed her something while they were shaking hands.  
With all the cameras filming Hope decides to just put it away in her glove without looking.  
Seconds later Pinoe and Syd comes crashing in.  
They are supporting a shit eating grin on their faces so Hope knows that they are up to no good. Seeing Syd take a quick look at her golden glove Hope realizes what her two teammates are planning on doing and quickly shuts them down. The keeper hands her trophy to Graeme and makes her way to the family section She manages to talk to some of her Reign teammates, old coaches, and off course her mom and grandmother.  
Her teammates are encouraged to clear the pitch and go to the locker room to continue their celebrations. Tobin follows the officials towards the medical wing. She is one of the few that doesn’t mind to have to do the drug testing after games but right now, there are a few places she would rather be.

Stadium security ask Hope to join her teammates in the locker room but the keeper has one person she has to see before she joins her celebrating teammates.

The keeper is always glad to see Jesse but at the same time she feels a bit guilty. The keeper pushes those thoughts away and puts a smile on her face. Hope’s smile grows even bigger when she notices the teenager, who is wearing a Solo jersey, is supporting the biggest smile she has ever seen on the teenager’s face.

 

Eventually it is Jesse who practically pushes the keeper back towards the pitch, stating she should celebrate with her teammates.  
“I’m really glad you made the trip out here today.” Hope says.

The keeper finally makes her way inside, but instead of walking towards the locker rooms she turns to the right. Hope sits down on one of the chairs that are lined up in the hallway.

She puts down her towel and water bottle. She then takes whatever Luce hand handed her out of her glove.   
A keycard with a note attached to it.  
Hope looks at it and shakes her head, _How does she do this?_ She puts the keycard safely away and closes her eyes for a moment. She cannot believe they just won a world cup. They are World Champions. A big smile appears on the keeper’s face. Somehow the golden medal around her neck feels less heavy than the silver one she earned four years ago.

 

Five minutes later Tobin walks into the hallway, surprised to see her friend waiting for her.  
“All clear?” Hope asks, knowing the results would be ok.  
“All clear” Tobin replies.  
On their way to the locker room the two players are congratulated by a lot of people.  
The two players each telling it is the other one they should congratulate.

The two are met with a champagne shower upon walking into the locker room. Kelley spots her girlfriend walking in the room and quickly abandons Alex to make her way towards the goalkeeper. Hope has her arms already wide open, ready to engulf Kelley in a hug. No one notices or the ones that do don’ think anything of it, THEY JUST WON THE WORLD CUP.  
“You were amazing out there”  
Hope smiles “So were you”  
“I’m not the one that pulled off all those saves.”  
“Well I did have a lot of help” The keeper says while holding up her gloves.  
Kelley smiles, she feels honored, Hope wearing those gloves today. She just wished the keeper would have worn them because she wanted to and not because she was forced to do so since the staff forgot to bring her regular gloves.

  
Hope She would have guessed to be one of the last ones to take a shower but as it turns out most of the girls are still celebrating. She’s glad she gets to have a calm moment, knowing once they step onto the bus she’ll have no calm moment till she hits the rack. She can already feel her body is going to be so sour tomorrow.  
She had made numerous dives and on the unforgiving turf, that will leave some bruising and sourness behind.

Hope was lost in her thoughts, she didn’t see Kelley walk into the showers. Seeing any of their teammates can walk in at any moment, Kelley takes a big risk. But she has waited long enough. The defender stands on the tip of her toes, turns her keeper around and kisses Hope.

The keeper was surprised at first, then she allows herself to get lost in the kiss. Hope, not happy with Kelley breaking the kiss, grunts.   
“Unless you want to give them a show I would suggest to wait till we are alone.”  
Hope pouts, she is not sure her body and mind will be up for it after the party so she sneaks in a small kiss before Kelley walks the other side of the room.

Not that much later Ali and HAO, both holding a bottle of champagne, walk in swaying to the beat of the music.  
“You want some?” Ali asks while holding up the champagne.  
“No thanks”  
The defender turns towards her fellow defender, who eagerly accepts the bottle.

The keeper quickly finishes her shower, wraps a towel around her body and walks back towards her partying teammates. While the keeper is buttoning her shirt she spots Kling drinking from a bottle different from the beer and champagne bottles they received and wonders how the defender managed to get that bottle of tequila.

Kelley is not really sure how they did it but eventually everyone managed to get onto the bus, one way or another. The midfielder was surprised to see Aaron and his crew holding the journalists at a distance. Maybe it is not a bad things, seeing some have already emptied their bottle of champagne, but for once Kelley was actually looking forward to be able to share her look on the game with the rest of the world. She figures she’ll send out a tweet or so tomorrow.

 

The one journalists do manage to get a hold of is Ali. But then again it has always been difficult to keep Ali away from German journalists. The defender would take whatever opportunity possible to be able to practice her German.

 

 “Hi Ali, first of all, congrats with the golden medal.”  
“Thank you” the defender smiles, nose crinkle one hundred percent present.  
“What were your thoughts when the referee blow the whistle?”

“I was shocked, angry. I mean I hadn’t touched her, she simply tripped while I guess she was trying to keep the ball away from me. And since I was running close to her I guess we got tangled up and I also fell.”

“So you didn’t tackle her?”

This question kind of surprises the defender, she shrugs it off, _maybe they didn’t see the replay on tv_.

“What did Van Steen say to you?” The reporter asks when the defender takes too long to answer his previous question

“When? “ Ali says, pretending she doesn’t know the exact moment and conversation the reporter is talking about.

“After that referee gave you the yellow card Luce could be seen coming up to you and she told you something.”

“I honestly don’t remember, at that moment a lot of people were saying a lot of things.” The defender replies while looking around, hoping to find a way out.

The reporter could see she was lying and tried to ask some more questions but someone yelled Ali’s name

“It was great talking to you but I got to go.” The defender quickly mumbles and walks away.

 Ali lets out a sigh when she walks away, in the direction of the sound, she is a bit confused because she didn’t recognize the voice but she’s so grateful that person got her away from the reporters. When Ali reached the place the voice had come from, she didn’t recognize anyone and no one seemed to pay attention to her, after looking around she decided to quickly enter the bus.

           

 

 


	54. Same city, same people, different day, different situation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow I cannot believe it has already been a month since my last update. As of a couple weeks ago some of you have been following this story for a year and that blows my mind. I just ,wow, thank you! Seeing what I had already written a year and what I have update so far I am kind of dissapointed in myself. With finals coming up in just over two weeks I'm not going to promise to get more chapters out. I do hope I can keep writing and get some chapters out (probably shorter ones). More chapters will be posted in the following days. Comments or ideas are always welcome.

As soon as the team was excused off the podium, the world champions are scattered all over the place, celebrating with friends and family.

Hope comes across a very familiar face.  
“What are you doing here?” the keeper asks pleasantly surprised.  
“Watching my favorite costumer win the world cup!” she gets in response.  
“Thanks very much” an ‘out of nowhere appearing’ Kelley replies before Hope can get out a word and quickly ducks, dodging the slap that never came.

“Two of my favorite costumers” the barista corrects and hugs the two golden medalists. After a short chat Kelley leaves those two for her friends and family. Hope’s grin gets just a bit bigger when she sees Erin and Kelley greeting each other in true O’Hara fashion.

Not long afterwards Kate tells Hope to she has to leave. Unfortunately, she didn’t get the day off tomorrow so she and her boyfriend need to make the drive back tonight. The keeper thanks her friend. The barista has a feeling Hope is thanking her for more than just making the drive up north today but feeling like what she did was nothing special or remarkable the barista just says a sincere “You’re welcome”. Hope watches Kate walk towards the door before making her way through the crowd towards some of her friends. But before she is able to walk a few feet the keeper spots Ali and her brother making their way towards her. She braces herself and tells herself _Kyle’s level of excitement is not bigger than Kelley’s. You can handle him._ Before she can get a word out he is hugging her. Ali must have given him some kind of look cause he lets her go pretty quickly. Hope does relax a bit after the hug. She finds it intriguing that Kyle and Ali have the same mumble when they speak. Soon the three are joined by Alex and Ashlyn.  

 

Kelley is hanging out with her family and the Heath’s but she had seen Hope’s reaction when Kyle out of the blue hugged her. Kelley’s smirk doesn’t go unnoticed by Tobin, who follows her friends gaze and seeing the look in Kelley’s eyes when she watches Hope, it makes her miss Claire just a bit more. She wished she would have been able to celebrate this night with her girlfriend but the French coach had decided to take his team home after the loss against Germany, making it impossible for Claire to be here with her tonight. Tobin thinks about calling her girlfriend only to realize she forgot to bring her phone with her.

Hope spots Mittsy standing alone at the bar, waiting for the bartender to bring her drink.  
“Can you keep an eye on my defender for a moment?”  
The blonde looks around to see the state the soccer player is in, once determined there is not going to be a repeat of the 2008 celebration the retired defender says “Off course”.  
“Thanks” Hope says before turning around. The keeper looks back one more time, seeing her friends and teammates happy, she smiles and walks unnoticed out of the room.

There are still a lot of people outside, Hope wants to run towards the stadium but that would draw too many attention, instead she just casually walks towards the stadium. Surprisingly no one seems to recognize her, the fact that they all seem to have drunk one beer to many might be one of the bigger reasons.

Hope walks to the stadium, it’s big, dark and silent. She walks up to the door, it is locked. The keeper looks around, there seem to be no cameras or guards around. She looks once again at the note before swiping the keycard followed by entering the 6-digit code. Hope opens the door but doesn’t go inside, she holds it open for a few seconds. When no alarm goes off she opens the door completely and walks in. The sound of the door closing is louder than anticipated and has Hope jumping, just a little bit though. The keeper stands still and looks around. It’s strange but at the same time special to be here now. It is silent but she can still feel the adrenaline, the pump-up of the thousands of people who were here just a few hours ago running through the air. Apart from the green emergency exit lights, and the reflections of the lights from outside it is dark.

  
Hope walks a bit further, the sound of her footsteps echoing through the deserted building, she curses for not having checked the layout of the stadium. She has been in a lot of stadia before so she does kind of know where to go. Once she reaches the staircases her eyes have to adapt to the bright light of the emergency lighting in the staircase. The keeper walks up a couple flight of stairs. She opens a door and walks onto the balcony. She sits down on one of the thousand chairs and looks around. The pitch, as expected, is deserted. The golden confetti has been cleaned up. Not all though, after looking at the pitch for a while the keeper does notice some confetti that was looked over during cleaning.

Remembering the reason why she is in the stadium the keeper looks up and after a while she finds what she has been looking for. Hope turns back around and walks inside. She circles around the pitch till she is pretty sure she has walked far enough. When she walks passed a door that is forced to stay open by an old box blocking it from closing, Hope knows she is at the right spot. She walks up the last flights of stairs, upon reaching the top she finds a safety harness and lying next to the door.  
She hooks herself onto the safety line and walks onto the roof.  
Hope is glad she has made a trip like this before, otherwise she isn’t sure she could have made this trip like this, just a little bit tipsy and in the dark, without falling. The wind is a lot stronger up here than it was on the streets. Before walking towards to the inner edge of the roof Hope looks at the outside, she looks at the city in front of her.

 

“If we are going to keep meeting like this, I suggest you buy me a safety harness for my birthday.”  
Luce laughs “I might do that”  
Hope sits down next to Luce, her legs dangling over the edge.  
She looks down at the stadium. Just a couple hours ago, it was packed all of the fans cheering. She can still hear them, the bigger part chanting USA, some were rooting for Belgium though. Especially when it seemed like they did have a chance to win this game.

  
Now, it was just silent and dark but somehow Hope still feels the buzz, adrenaline still pumping through her veins, golden medal still around her neck.  
Being here, on top of the stadium’s roof feels different from the other time though. Maybe it’s because this time they just played their first official game against each other or maybe it is because Luce is wearing an oxygen mask or maybe it is just different. Same city, same people, different day, different situation.

 

Kelley had all night been partying with her friends and family, right now she is taking a much needed break. It is great to see her friends letting it all go for a night and just enjoy it. She has only been around the team for a year but from what she has seen all these girls worked their super hard, barely taken a day off in that year (if she may believe the stories she should extend that one-year period to three years), not letting the critics get to them, proving all the doubters wrong by winning the tournament.    
It feels unreal to be part of this, to have scored a goal in a world cup semi-final.  
If she hadn’t met Hope that one day, if she hadn’t woken up early to get in some extra training, she would not be standing here today with a golden medal around her neck, the only way she would be here today would be as a fan.

 

Thinking about her girlfriend Kelley looks around. It takes a while because there are a lot of people and they are all moving around but Kelley realizes Hope is not here. She looks further until she spots the one person that would know where Hope is.

She makes her way to the midfielder, who is having a good time but still looks like she would rather be somewhere else.  
“Have you seen Hope?”  
The midfielder looks around for a second before answering “Nope, but knowing Hope she was probably in dying need to get out of this” Carli looks around, wondering how to describe what this exactly is eventually she just settles for “She probably just needed to get some fresh air.”  
Kelley is a bit disappointed Hope didn’t ask her to join or at least told her she was going for a walk.  
She contemplates calling Hope, just to make sure she is all right. Kelley looks around and figures if Hope can walk out of the room without anyone noticing, she can go outside for a couple minutes without being missed.

 

Mittsy is glad she just spotted Kelley leaving. The retired defender quickly sets down her drink and walks outside, hoping Kelley didn’t go too far.  
When she spots Kelley making a phone call she decides to keep her distance, knowing Kelley is probably calling Hope. She shivers, compared to the temperature inside it is chill outside and the retired defender kicks herself for not grabbing her jacket on her way out.

 

Hope phone rings, she takes it out of her pocket and looks at the picture of Kelley that appeared on her screen.  
“You should take that” Luce says when she sees her friend looking at the phone. The Belgian player stands up and walks away, giving her American friend some privacy. Or at least a sense of privacy, since she is still able to hear the bigger part of one side of the conversation. Luce walks a bit further, to the outer edge and sits down, overlooking the city. Her phone also buzzes but unlike Hope, Luce ignores the buzzing and looks at the water. Realizing it has been a long time since she first walked onto the roof Luce checks her watch. She closes the valve of the oxygen tank and takes some breathes before removing the tube.

The first few breathes after the oxygen therapy are the best, still having the feeling of enough oxygen flowing through her body. It doesn’t take long though before she notices even breathing in really deep doesn’t give her that feeling anymore. Wind blowing in her face she tries to not think about it. Instead she thinks about the World Cup. This tournament was better than she expected it to be. Not because they got into the final but because off all that happened off the pitch. Although playing the final against the USA was also pretty epic. Thinking back to the final Luce takes out a booklet and pen and write some things down that popped into her mind.   

 

  
“You know the party is inside, and not out here.” Mittsy says once Kelley puts away her phone.  
Kelley is surprised to see the retired defender “I could tell you the same thing.”

Kelley sits down on some cardboard boxes, the light of the moon reflecting on her golden medal.  
“So how was it? Playing in your first World Cup?” Heather asks, sensing Kelley isn’t quite ready to go back inside.  
Kelley doesn’t know how to answer that question. She has been asked this question numerous times during the tournament. Each time she had responded something different, still feeling like she isn’t able to fully put the experience in words. “You know how it is, epic, wonderful, hard, amazing, stressful, even heartbreak at moments. But I enjoyed every minute of it.” The smile on the world campion’s face grows a bit bigger, sparkle still present in her eyes.

  
Heather smiles, she had never won a World Cup but she does know how it feels living through an entire world cup tournament. A lot of times it is not as glorious as people would think but in the end it is always worth it, representing your country, playing the game you like, being around a bunch of crazy women, these are just a few of the reasons.  
“You did good.”  
“You think?”  
Before the retired defender can say something Kelley adds “When Jill didn’t play me after the Sweden game I thought my tournament was over. I thought-” Kelley trails off, not really sure explain the feeling she had at that moment.  


 “You do realize I’m going to wonder how it looks like from on top of the stadium every time I step onto the pitch or am in a stadium from now on.”  
“Not a bad thing is it?” Luce replies while Hope sits down.  
The both sit there in silence for a while before Hope answers absentmindedly “No it’s not.”

 

“You should go back to your team, you deserve to celebrate.” Luce says after she finally got to know the story on how Kelley O’Hara managed to win over Hope Solo.  
“So do you”  
Luce smiles, or at least Hope thinks so, Luce is sitting in a dark spot so Hope is not really able to see her face.  
Hope helps her friend back up and the two friends make their way back inside. By the time Hope got out of her safety harness Luce is already holding out her hand to take it.  
The younger one puts the two safety harnesses back away while Hope replies to Carli’s text.

 

“Are you coming over after all this?” Hope asks while opening the door.  
The two step outside before Luce answers “I don’t really know. Probably have to go back first. But who knows, I might jump by.”  
Hope nods, she then realizes she still has the keycard.  
“What about this?” She asks while holding up the keycard.  
“Keep it. It might come in handy one day” Luce says while shutting off her phone, effectively stopping it from buzzing.

“Don’t be a stranger!” Hope shouts, not sure she will see her friend before their teams leave Canada.

Like always Luce keeps walking away but puts up her hand, signaling she heard Hope’s comment.  
Seemingly out of nowhere a pup appears and walks next to Luce. The Belgian striker bows down and pets him to acknowledge him and continues her walk. Putting her hand up one more time before disappearing in the darkness.

 

Hope wondered where that pup had been. She has a feeling, after the whole Vancouver incident at the beginning of the tournament, Luce doesn’t leave him with her teammates anymore. But leaving him alone on to hide on the streets seems as dangerous.

 


	55. 4 pm drunk or not?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Second update for today. Two more chapters are scheduled to be posted somewhere in the next couple of days.

Hope makes a small detour on her way back.  
Once in her room she kicks off her shoes, takes off her pants and leg braces she had been wearing and sits down on her bed. Leaning against the headboard she closes her eyes for a second. The keeper lets her muscles relax for a moment.

Hope is awoken by the sound of her alarm. The keeper is glad she switched on her alarm before falling asleep. She looks at her braces, doubts for a moment to put them back on but decides against it. Hope puts her pants back on, puts the braces away and after grabbing a bottle of Gatorade she walks out of the room. The air has cooled down a bit but it is still warm enough for Hope to be able to walk in just her shirt and a light jacket. By the time the keeper makes it to the Fan HQ her bottle of Gatorade is empty. She tosses the empty bottle in a dumpster and casually walks towards the building, hoping no one will recognize her.

  
The loud music and flashing lights hit her as soon as she steps inside.  
Hope wants to slap herself for coming back to the loud and crowded bar. She rather would have just cuddled with Kelley and called it an early night. But she promised her girlfriend she would come back so here she is. Plus there is no way Carli, Ali or of her other teammates would let her skip out this night.  
While waiting at the bar for a drink Hope looks around and assesses the damage.  
Pinoe, Ali, Syd, Kling and to her surprise Arod all seem already pretty far gone.

“Where did you go?” Kelley asks while sitting down next to Hope, already forgetting she texted her girlfriend minutes ago, asking the same question.  
“Had to get some fresh air”  
Kelley tilts her head and looks at Hope to make sure she really is ok.  
And for a moment Hope isn’t sure Kelley is as drunk as she lets out to be.  
It doesn’t take long before Kelley is called back onto the dancefloor.  
The defender looks for a moment at her girlfriend who just tells her to go.  
Hope smiles as she watches her girlfriend making her way back to the dancefloor, stopping a few times to make some ridiculous dance moves while trying to not spill the drink she stole from Hope.

 

She looks around and spots her teammates, her friends having fun. It makes her feel happy. Ali and JJ try to get her onto the dancefloor but the keeper knows she will have to rest her legs a bit If she wants to make it these next few days without incidents.

 

 So the keeper settles for sitting a bit more in the back and talking to friends, teammates’ families and the occasional staring at her girlfriend. It is great seeing some of these people again. This also gives her a chance to catch up with Erin.

 

“SOLO” Someone says excitingly just a few seconds after Hope said goodbye to Erin. Hope turns around and smiles “Jules”.  
Upon hearing Solo Kelley also looks up, trying to find out who called her girlfriend. It doesn’t take too long to realize it was JJ. Kelley smiles seeing the two women interact. Hope had been the blonde’s rock throughout the tournament. But Kelley knows her keeper has tremendous respect for the rookie. Sometimes Hope would just talk about how the rookie played in training and about how her level of play was way beyond her years. Let’s just say it is a good thing that JJ and Kelley don’t play the same position.  
Syd, hips swaying, blocks Kelley’s view. After trying to look at her girlfriend one more time Kelley focuses on the forward. Soon she finds herself dancing along, the only thing she is focused on is the beat of the music.

 

A couple hours later Hope is once again standing at the bar.  
She looks surprised when Tobin sits down next to her.  
“What are you still doing here?” Hope asks, forgetting Tobin doesn’t know.  
“Don’t you think the others will notice I sneak out early?”  
Upon hearing Tobin’s answer Hope could kick herself. “It’s not like any one expect you to stay as long as those two.” Hope says while nodding towards Pinoe and Arod. The midfielder looks at the two blondes. Turning back to the keeper she says “Speaking about defenders, don’t you think it is time to take your defender back to the hotel?”  
Hope is confused at first, they weren’t talking about defenders at all, eventually she looks up and finds Kelley on the dancefloor. Seeing the state her girlfriend is in, it’s probably better to take her to the hotel but Hope knows how much Kelley loves to party. And she does not want to make a scene so she isn’t too thrilled about having to go get her dancing girlfriend.

 

In the end the defender must love Hope more since it doesn’t take the keeper too long to get her girlfriend to leave. Kling and Christen on the other hand don’t come along that easy. Apparently those two start talking Swedish once they have had a few drinks too many. Hope doesn’t recognize much of what they are saying. Either her one year in Sweden wasn’t enough to pick up the language or the two were just too drunk to clearly pronounce the words and to not butcher the language.

 

15 minutes or so later Hope and Tobin accompany a what appear to be drunken Kelley O’Hara, Christen Press and Meghan Klingenberg to the team’s hotel.  
The two sober ones joke about lightweight Stanford.  
With Kling being one of the drunk Tobin cannot really say otherwise about UNC. She does argue it isn’t faire because Hope is the only player out of Washington University.  
Tobin had been to college with Kling so she knew all about the defender’s love for tequila and thus was not surprised to see Kling take, seemingly out of nowhere, a bottle of tequila. The almost empty bottle resembles the bottle she was drinking out earlier in the stadium. The only difference was that in the stadium the bottle was still full. Hope wonders if she drank the bottle all by herself.

 

With a drunk girl hanging on each side there is not much Hope can do to prevent Kelley’s hands from being all over her. She even tried to switch Kelley with Kling, but Kelley was having none of it. She would only walk alongside her girlfriend. And at that moment Hope is actually glad the other two are drunk as hell and won’t remember a single thing tomorrow.

 

The two sober girls have been busy keeping their teammates upright that they didn’t really pay attention to the road they are taking. _Maybe she isn’t as drunk as she appears to be_ Hope thinks when Kelley remarks that they are walking in the wrong direction. Seconds later the defender stumbles over her own feet, taking Hope and Press with her. _Ok, maybe she is drunk_ Hope thinks as she lies on the ground _._ Tobin grins when she sees the look on her friend’s face.

Somehow they manage to not get recognized nor photographed or worse filmed on their way to the hotel. Tobin and Hope are relieved to walk into the hotel. No more chances of getting photographed.

 

Once in the elevator Hope presses the number fourteen button.  
Tobin looks questioning at Hope, but her attention is needed elsewhere (Christen).  
The door opens but Hope is facing the other way so she can see her midfielder’s reaction.  
The look of surprise and joy on Tobin’s face is golden.  
“Claire” the midfielder lets out, after a second she adds “I thought you were in Paris”.  
“Surprise”  
The French international looks at Hope when Tobin doesn’t react the way she had predicted Tobin to react. To be honest the midfielder is not reacting at all, she is kind of frozen. Hope sees her French friend starting to doubt herself, not really sure if she should have come.  
Hope nudges her American friend, not wanting Tobin’s inability to act at times to ruin the surprise.

 

Completely forgetting Christen and Kling are also in the elevator, not that they would notice since they are in some kind of drunken conversation with Kelley, Tobin quickly closes the space and- Hope looks away, giving her two friends a private moment.

 

A short hello and goodbye later Hope watches the two walking towards Claire’s room before pushing the elevator’s close button followed by the number 12 button. She is proud of herself for getting Claire back to Canada in time for the final. When Tobin learned the French team would travel back after their loss against Germany the midfielder was devastated. Tobin really had hoped to have her girlfriend here to share the moment, to celebrate the win. Hope’s smug look quickly disappears when Press, Kling and Kelley once again get her attention.

 

Hope doesn’t remember dragging along 3 drunken teammates to be this hard. Maybe it is because her body and mind are exhausted. Her legs are killing her, but you will never hear her complain about that. She just won the World cup and now, she gets to fall asleep (and wake up) next to the woman she loves.  
Or maybe it is because Kelley, Kling and Christen are just one of the most obnoxious drunk people she has ever seen.

 

She sits Kelley and Kling down in the hallway chairs and tells them to stay, not knowing her girlfriend and friend would listen or not.  
Hope is a bit uncertain about her girlfriend’s level of intoxication. There are times she acts and seems perfectly sober and there are other times she seems more drunk than Hope’s mother used to be by the time 4 pm came around. She is quite certain about Meghan’s level of intoxication, let’s just say that it is safe to assume the tiny defender drunk the entire bottle of tequila by herself.

 

The keeper is glad she had taken Christen’s key card earlier so now she doesn’t have to fight the forward for it. While she opens the door the Stanford grad sits down on the ground and seems to find the wall comfortably enough to fall asleep against.  
“No, no come on we are almost there” Hope tries to pull the forwards back up but the forward seemed to find the floor comfortable enough.  
After a few tries, which Kelley finds hilarious until she almost fell off her chair and onto the ground, Hope finally gets the forward in her room. Kelley’s almost fall only stopped her and Kling laughing for only a second or two. The last thing Hope sees before closing the door is those two continue doing whatever they were doing.  

 

Hope puts a bottle of water on the bedside table and searches Christen’s bags. She finally finds some aspirin and puts it beside the bottle of water. She wanted to get the forward to drink at least half of the bottle but the striker is already passed out.  
Hope looks at the forward for a second. She never would have guessed Christen to be one to get drunk on a night like this. The keeper tucks the striker in and leaves the room.

 

 Hope manages to get Kling into the same room. She doesn’t remember what room the defender is in but with the other girls also not sleeping in their own room or bed, it doesn’t matter where she puts Meghan. After looking at the two younger players Hope once again leaves the room, hoping her girlfriend is still sitting in the chair she left her in.

 

Thankfully Kelley is and it seems she has started a monologue about the foul play in the Chinese game. Hope takes a deep breath before walking the last few feet. “Come on Kell. Let’s go to bed.” The keeper holds out her hands, Kelley surprises her by taking them and getting up quite quickly.

 

Once Hope is sure they are the only two on the hallway she decides the easiest and fastest way will be if she carries her girlfriend so she picks Kelley up and carries her bridal style towards her room.  
“Stop fidgeting, you will let us both fall” the frustrated keeper says.  
“Put me down.” Kelley exclaims.  
Hope, shocked by her girlfriend’s tone, puts Kelley down.  
“Why?” the keeper asks, not really expecting a lucid answer.  
“Because you should save carrying me like that into our room for our wedding night.” Kelley answers casually, she steals the keycard from Hope and walks towards Hope’s room leaving the keeper dumbfounded behind.

 

“You are not drunk?” Hope asks in surprise while jogging to catch up.  
“Do you really think I would risk not remembering this night for a couple of drinks?” Kelley replies while opening the door.

 

Hope opens her mouth a couple times to say something but she closes it each time without words have been spoken. In some ways Hope is glad Kelley isn’t drunk. She had been looking forward to share this night with Kelley but not with a drunk Kelley. And if she would be completely honest she was kind of disappointed to see her girlfriend chose to get drunk tonight.

 

Kelley kisses Hope. The keeper raises an eyebrow,  
“Cause I wanted to thank you.” Kelley answers the unasked question and shrugs her shoulders. Truth is Hope, not being able to speak, was so cute.  
But before Kelley can explain why, Hope kisses Kelley.  
“What was THAT for?” the defender asks, with a smile on her face.   
“Because I wanted to thank you and because I really wanted to kiss you.” Hope tried to play it off casually  
“Is that so?” Kelley inquiries while looking Hope in the eye. She still hasn’t find out what color of blue Hope’s eyes really are. Sometimes they are light blue, almost ice. But other times they are like fire. _Wait that doesn’t make sense. How can blue look like fire?_ It doesn’t matter, Kelley loves them all.

 

”mmh” Hope hums while she lays her arms on Kelley’s shoulders, holding her close.  
Waiting for Hope to elaborate, Kelley slips her hands around Hope’s waist.  
“you see” Hope stops, the way Kelley is looking at her and the way Kelley’s fingers are gently rubbing circles against her skin makes the keeper go week in her knees.(or maybe her legs are just tired)  The defender seems to pick up on her girlfriend’s incapability to form words and decides to up her game.

 

“You were saying?” Kelley innocently asks while letting her hands wander further underneath Hope’s shirt.  
Hope just stands there, looking Kelley in the eye and unable to move or to speak.  
The way Hope is looking at her, Kelley realizes if she doesn’t take matters in hand, they will still be standing here by the time the sun comes up. 

 

Hope swears her heart skips a beat or two when she realizes Kelley is leaning in. The keeper finally re-finds her ability to move once she feels Kelley’s lips on her own. With her left hand Hope cups Kelley cheeks, the other hand rests on Kelley’s back in an attempt to keep her as close as possible. What started out as just a kiss grows to something so much more passionate. Shoes getting kicked off, clothes finding their way to the ground, bedsheets getting wrinkled, medals left on the bedside table (after a short discussion involving having to be able to let her family touch/ wear the medal).

 

(a while later, the two of them lying in bed)

“I missed you” Kelley says, pulling Hope out of her thoughts.  
Hope turns around so she is lying on her side, facing Kelley. She wanted to say they had been together this entire tournament but one look in Kelley’s eyes made her realize what her girlfriend meant with her statement.  
Seeing the look in Kelley’s eyes change, the keeper quickly holds out her hands “No, no. Don’t you da-”  
Kelley can’t help herself though and executes her tickle plan.  
The defender stops a moment, although she loves to hear Hope laugh, she has to remind her girlfriend to keep quiet, by now more teammates may have made the walk back.

 

After that it doesn’t take the keeper too long before she has control of Kelley’s hands. Hope continues by pinning down Kelley. She leans down and captures Kelley’s lips with her own. Before she sits back upright the keeper, following Kelley’s warning to stay silent, whispers “I missed you too”.

Seeing as how her keeper might fall asleep any moment Kelley pushes the keeper onto her back and after a quick kiss Kelley wiggles until she is in the perfect position. This always get a smirk out of Hope. One of the last things that flashes through Kelley’s mind is how lucky she is. She gets to fall asleep as a world champion, lying half on top another world champion but not just a world champion, no a special one. A golden glove winner world champion.

Hope places a kiss on top of Kelley’s head and with her arm around Kelley’s body holds her defender close.

Kelley is asleep for barely a minute or two when Hope’s phone buzzes. Normally she would not have paid attention to it, but since she had switched the don’t disturb mode on she knows whoever is trying to reach her is someone important.

 

“Is Kelley asleep?” is all Carli’s text reads.

Although Hope would rather stay in bed with Kelley cuddled into her, the keeper softly slipped from underneath Kelley.  
One last look (and kiss) and Hope is gone. She takes a quick shower to get rid of the champagne and sweat (and to get her mind back into an awoken state) before making her way down. She knows chances of coming across someone are pretty slim so she takes her crutches. She does dump and hide them before walking into the conference room, Carli doesn’t need to know.

 

Hope laughs when she spots her friend eating pizza.  
“What?” The MVP asks with a mouth full.  
“I just never thought I would see you eating pizza at 5 in the morning after a world cup final”  
“Do you know how good these are?” Carli chews a few times before adding “I haven’t eaten a pizza in-” the golden ball winner thinks for a moment, not really coming up with the exact answers she answers “in like forever.”

 

Hope sits down and Carli slides the box over “You want some?”  
“No thank you. I al-” knowing the comments she would get from the sentence she was going to say, the keeper quickly changes it to “I’m not hungry.”  
Carli looks at her friend for a moment before sliding the box back.

 

Carli tries to find out if her friends knows. She doesn’t know what the connection between Hope and Luce is but from the little banter out on the pitch she suspects those two are at least friends. Although she isn’t allowed to share the information she knows, if Hope knows already than she can talk about it.

  
But it is clear to Carli that her friend doesn’t know. Carli finds it ridiculous she isn’t allowed to share the news with her friend. It is not like she (and the rest of the team) are not going to find out (if they haven’t already). It is all over the news.

 

“Are you ok?” Hope asks, sensing Carli’s mind is in another place.  
Carli wished she would have been more awake so she could come up with a non-suspicious sounding answer. Eventually she just says “yeah, I really could use some sleep right now.” And it isn’t even a lie. She really is exhausted.  
“When is your next interview?”  
Carli looks at her watch “Four minutes till they start going through the questions before the real interview.”

 

The midfielder next interview comes up and that’s Hope’s cue to go back to her room.  
Carli thanks Hope for staying awake and keeping her company.  
Hope tells her she doesn’t mind and wishes her all the best with the next couple of interviews.

 

The keeper picks up her crutches and makes her way back to her room.   
Once inside, she folds the crutches and tucks them safely away. The keeper looks at her girlfriend. Who is currently asleep, cuddling the pillow Hope used to replace herself with. Hope takes off her sweatshirt and sweatpants and slips underneath the covers. It doesn’t take long before Kelley replaces the pillow for Hope.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know these last few chapters might have been confusing but it will all become very clear in the next few chapters.


	56. The morning after

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I cannot believe more than a week has passed since my last update. It feels like just a day or two has passed. I hope you like this chapter, next chapter will be shorter but will be posted in a couple days (that is if I can keep track of the days passing).

Kelley had woken up Hope five minutes ago, but the keeper has jet to open her eyes. Kelley isn’t even certain that muffled “uh-huh” she heard earlier was coming from a woken up Hope and not just Hope humming along in her sleep.  
She decides to switch tactics and straddles her girlfriend. She leans down, trailing some kisses up Hope’s neck. _She always goes for the neck._  
Hope doesn’t want to open her eyes yet, it feels like she shut them only 30 minutes ago.  
“Morning champ” Kelley says excitingly.   
“Uh-huh” Hope mumbles, her mind not yet fully awake.

But with Kelley Maureen O’Hara awake in your bed, it is hard to not want to wake up.  
Hope rubs her eyes, vision still a bit blurry, she looks at her girlfriend.  
“How does it feel to wake up next to a World Champion?” Kelley asks with a big smile on her face.  
Hope chuckles “I don’t know, how is it to wake up next to a golden glove winner?”  
“Surprisingly boring” Kelley says dead serious  
“BORING?” Hope asks surprised. This is not one of the answers Hope expected.  
Seeing Hope’s reaction Kelley quickly holds up her arms in surrender and says “I’m just kidding …”   
Hope playfully pushes Kelley off her. The keeper is quick to straddle her girlfriend.  
Seeing the look in Hope’s eyes, Kelley knows her girlfriend is up to no good. And if she was right, she was just a bit too right. Seeing Hope pull away, Kelley hoped it would just be temporarily and that the keeper would finish what she started.

  
“Boring huh?” The keeper, unable to hide her smirk, asks.  
“uh-huh.” Kelley manages to get out, biting her lip in anticipation as to what is to come.  
Seeing Hope doesn’t make a move she grunts and adds “What else do you expect me to say. I spend most of the night alone.”  
This surprises the keeper, “I didn’t think you were awake.” Hope says silently, suddenly feeling guilty for leaving Kelley, “Carli needed some company for in between interviews.”.  
Kelley scrunches her nose, this is not one of the moments she wants to be talking about Carli.  
“That’s why I cannot remember you wearing this when I went to sleep last night.” Kelley says while tugging on the band of Hope’s sports bra “I do hope you put on some more clothes before leaving the room.”

Kelley lets her hands roam over Hope’s back.  
Feeling Kelley’s fingers rest on top of her scars Hope knows what Kelley’s next question will be.  
The keeper tries to divert the defender’s attention before she gets to ask the question but Hope is too late. Before she can make a move Kelley already asks her “How are your legs?”  
The sole advantage of already having started leaning down is that she doesn’t have to look Kelley in the eye while replying “They are fine”. The keeper rolls, of her defender, onto the matrass and stares at the ceiling.

Kelley frowns, it is not like Hope to react like this. Not wanting to make a big deal out of it, she decides to just let it go. The defender sits up, pats Hope on the leg “That’s good” and she gets out of the bed.

Hope sighs, why can’t she just tell the truth? It is not like Kelley will look different at her or will tell the coaching staff. The keeper can hit herself, instead she just lies there, hating herself.

Meanwhile Kelley looks around for some clothes. She cannot really wear the same ones as yesterday. She could but then she had to make a run to her room, still risking to be spotted. But the biggest reason why she was lingering around looking for clothes and not just grab the shirt and sweatpants that are lying in front of her is because she hopes Hope might come around.

With Kelley already out of the bed Hope asks her to get her wallet out of her bag. _It is not much but it is something._  
Kelley moves to the keeper’s sports bag. She quickly goes through it. The first comes across two pair of gloves, in the beginning she is confused. _Why would Hope walk around with two unused pair of gloves in her bag?_ It doesn’t take the Stanford grad too long to remember Ryan and Matt saying something about having brought 2 pair with them to the game.  
A smile forms on her lips, she puts the gloves back and takes the wallet. She walks to Hope, hands over the thing she was supposed to look for and kisses Hope passionately.

“What was that for?” Hope asks after she catches her breath.  
“Because I love you” Kelley replies, followed by a quick but passionate kiss on the lips. Hope looks her girlfriend in the eye. She gets lost in the hazel eyes before remembering she also wanted to say something “I love you too”.  
Kelley leans a bit closer so she is able to whisper “I know” in her keeper’s ear. Even though the keeper seemed hesitant about making their relationship public, her hiding the gloves the trainers brought with them so she could wear the Squirrel ones is pretty special.  
Hope shivers, feeling Kelley’s hot breath against her skin. By the time she realizes what Kelley just told her the defender is already walking towards the bathroom. The keeper forgets all about the keycard and wallet and quickly gets makes her way to the bathroom.

 

Eventually the two make it out of Hope’s room. Given the early hour, they are the only ones in the hallways. Kelley is surprised the keeper holds her close, fingers intertwined. She doesn’t know why but she really hoped they would walk into one of their teammates.

Kelley is out of luck. They do not encounter a single soul on their small detour to Claire’s room. The couple made the small detour to pick up their friend and Kelley wanted to say hi to Claire. After some quick catching up the three say goodbye to the French international and make their way down, taking the stairs. Kelley sees Hope leaning on the railing but does not really pay attention to it.

The trio walks into the dining room. Apart from some of the staff members, who appear to be working really hard and a few players (Christie, Boxxy, Carli, Becky, Whitney and surprisingly Ali) the room is empty.

 

While the players had been celebrating last night a part of the crew had been busy. Trying to figure out where it went wrong. They searched tons of videos posted on social media to find the one that might prove all the rumors wrong. But they didn’t find it. They checked with FIFA and with the Belgian Football federation but neither seemed to have an answer.

 

Surprisingly Kelley is the first one to discover the tumult and speculations about yesterday’s victory.  
Instead of shouting it all over the table she just subtle passes her phone to her keeper. Hope looks questioning at Kelley before looking down and reading the article. Hope is only halfway through when she jumps up. This does get the attention of the other people in the room.

“Pick up pick up pick up pick up” Hope mutters while impatiently tapping her fingers on the table.   
“Hope”  
“You can fight this you know. Whatever it is, we can fight this. We-”   
“Hope” Luce says once again, this time interrupting the keeper.  
Hope shuts up, the line is silent for a moment.   
“I know you want me to fight this but I’m not going to. I … I just don’t want to play for an organization that cares more about the color of the medal than they care for the game.” Luce takes a few breathes before adding “and I just don’t have the energy to fight this.”

 

Hope is once again reminded of her friend’s condition. This tournament most probably pushed her passed her limits. Hell even Hope’s body is exhausted, her legs feel like mash, if it wasn’t for ….

“Why didn’t you say something about it last night?” The keeper asks.  
“Would it have mattered? It is not like you could have done something about it.” The younger woman answers in defeat. The keeper is silent, her friend is right. Tweeting about it would only have made things worse.

“Where are you going?” Hope asks, knowing her friend will disappear and whatever she says won’t make her change her mind.  
“I don’t know yet” _Probably not a lie, Luce is more a last minute kind of person._  
“Are you going back” Hope swallowed the word ‘home’ just in time.  
“They want me to give some kind of testimony on why I didn’t take the PK but they can write that on their abdomen …” the Belgian player trails off, not really knowing what more to say.

 

If Hope would not have been busy to decipher what Luce just told she would have asked the forward why she did it. But instead she is racking her brain trying to come up with a time where Luce used that same idiom. Her friend always has liked to mess up idioms, to translate them literally so for Luce to do it now shows the keeper her friend is just fine or at least is close to being fine.

“You know you can always come to Seattle.” Hope says, not wanting her friend to be alone when everything comes down.  
“I know but I have to get away for a while. I just have to. I have to be away for a while.” Luce repeats, as if she is trying to convince herself that going away is the best thing to do.

 

“Don’t be a stranger!” the keeper says once again, knowing chances of seeing her friend before the team leaves for LA are very slim. Knowing her friend, she is probably already long gone.

 

Luce looks out of the window for a moment, sun shining brightly, but she cannot feel the warmth (of the sunrays) one would expect. She leans forward, resting her head against the window and answers “I won’t”.

The moment the line goes dead Hope knows she should have asked about the bribing accusations. Not that she thinks they are real, money or whatever they supposedly offered Luce is not something she can be bribed with. The only thing one could bribe Luce with is something that by now already long impossible is.

Moments after she ends the call, somewhere not too far away an alarm goes off. Soon followed by the sound of numerous footsteps rapidly coming in her direction.  
Luce quickly types on her phone, needing to send this before she has to get moving.

  
Hope suddenly realizes she made quite the scene prior to the phone call. She tries to come up with a plausible explanation, but one look at the table makes her realize they already know. Seeing Carli talking to the others, Hope wonders how long her friend has known about this. The keeper doesn’t get far before her phone buzzes. Hope stops to check it out. She will take whatever distraction she can get to prolong her return to her teammates. The keeper is surprised to see a tweet notification from Luce. While she waits for the app to open, a few more notifications appear.

“ _I know what I did might not be a common occurrence in soccer but to those who believe that we deserved that PK,you should take another look!”_ followed by a link.  
Hope doesn’t know what to expect, from what she read in the article is that there is no close-up footage of the play.

  _How did she get her hands on this?  
_ After having seen the small video fragment 3 times and confirming what she had seen yesterday was real, the keeper choses to walk back towards her friends instead of checking out the other notifications.

 From the distraught look on Ali’s face the keeper knows her defender is blaming herself. Not that she did anything wrong but knowing the defender she is going to blame herself anyways.  
“Hey Kriegs, looks like you’re off the hook.”   
The other players look surprised and confused at the keeper.  
Hope hands the defender her phone.

The other all huddle around the defender, all wanting to see whatever it is that Hope has on her phone. Apart from Becky, none of them had been close enough to really see what happened. Off course, when asked, they all would say Ali didn’t touch the girl.  

 

Ali is just overwhelmed. She knew she didn’t tackle the Belgian player but after reading all those comments and articles she started to question herself. It didn’t help that yesterday’s reporter asked her something similar. She knows that even if the Belgian team was payed to not win, she is not to blame. She just did her job. But seeing there is actual footage of the play makes it just so much easier.

  
The defender gives the keeper her phone back. Hope favorites and retweets the tweet before looking at Luce’s other tweets.

“ _To those who believe I would have accepted money to not win the game I love the most. For me it doesn’t matter if I’m playing just …”_

 _“… a simple pick-up game with friends or a world cup finale, I’ll always put the game and fair-play above everything else.”  
  
_ “ _To my teammates, it was an honor playing with you! good luck qualifying for Rio. #GoFlames#Proud”_

_“To the USWNT, thank you for making my last game so memorable. Congrats with the win #deserved#respect#WatchOutIn2016”_

A few more tweets, calling out the FIFA and Belgian football federation, are send out.

 _And they call me a twitter rand?_ Hope does favorite and retweet the tweets that are appropriate for her to do so. Last thing she wants to do is cause neither of them any (more) trouble. Hope pockets her phone and sits back down next to Kelley. The younger woman places her hand on the keeper’s thigh and looks up at her. Hope just nods and takes a sip from the coffee Kelley got her. She figures she might as well get some more caffeine in her body if she is going to deal with situations like this one, this early in the morning. Some do feel the effects of last night partying and are a bit more silent but for most of the remaining of breakfast, the gals talk about last night’s party, yesterday’s game or about the plans they have for the few days off after LA. Although every time a new teammate walks into the room they have to go over the story all over again, the overall atmosphere is pretty good. Hope is kind of absent. So many things are going through her mind. She has so many question, so many things she wants to say but is not able to say. But Kelley talks enough to cover for Hope’s lack of input into the conversation.

Once most of the gals showed up for breakfast Jill gives a small speech. She talks about yesterday’s win, them being world champions and more importantly, about them deservingly winning. She tells them to not listen to the critics, with proof going around the internet those critics soon disappear. The gals are disappointed and angry that their win and all their effort is lost with the accusations. They fought hard, not only in the WC final but these last four years. They deserve this medal, this trophy. They do not deserve all the commotion around it. But they are also angry because (if the accusations are not proven to be real) the Belgian team also does not deserve this. Reaching the final in your first World Cup is an amazing achievement.

 

Most of the players use the short free moment to hang out with their family.

Kelley wants to talk to Hope but Erin and Jerry are already waiting for her in the lobby. Seeing the internal battle Kelley is having Hope says “We’ll talk later” while she walks by. The keeper does stop for a moment to add “tell them I said hi.” With that, Hope walks away. Kelley is a bit disappointed Hope had been saying “we’ll talk later” a lot lately. She has a battle with herself, deciding if she should walk after Hope or catch up with her brother and sister, as planned. Kelley decides to meet up with her brother and sister, leaving the talk with Hope for a moment when they have more time. Once that decision has been made, the defender flips the switch mentally and puts on her smile, forgetting about her and Hope’s _troubles._

 

Hope sits down while asking “What do you want?” annoyance evident in her voice.  
“Hello to you to Hope. Good to see you again. How have you been?”   
Hope shakes her head and grins “Hello. I’m not sure yet if it is good to see you again” Hope replies with a smile “I think these last couple of hours have been pretty amazing. It’s not every day you win the World Cup.” She adds, replying to the ‘How have you been’ question.  


After some small talk he pulls out his pen and paper, “So Van Steen what is she to you?”  
Hope knows she was lucky to not get that question earlier. The keeper watches a seagull take off before turning to look the man before saying “Off record”  
It’s not a question, it is a statement and he knows it. He also knows if he tries to go against it he will have nothing, while going with the off record thing he might end up with another story. So he confirms “Off record” putting the notepad away.  
Hope nods, “So what do you want to know?”  
“I was at your pregame press conference and like the others I was kind of shocked by the little banter between you and this French journalist. Although I’m pretty sure she isn’t a journalist. You see I did some digging. Turns out there is no _La Règne Emeraude_ so long story short the _Emeraude_ translates to Emerald which I think could a be a reference to the Emerald City, Seattle. The you have _La Règne_ which can be translated to Reign. All that combined we get Seattle Reign FC. First I thought she might have been one of your Seattle Reign FC teammates. But the name gave up translates into Amelia Solo, plus she also does not resemble any of the Seattle Reign FC players at all. Then I saw you two after the final. And I got curious.”  
He continues talking but for a moment Hope’s thinking has taken over her mind, momentarily blocking out whatever he is saying.

He is more observant than she gave him credit to be.

After explaining part of the story, making sure to not give him more than he asked for, the keeper clasps her hands together. “So what else is it that you want to know?” Hope asks, knowing he’s hoping for some kind of story he is allowed to write.

 

He finishes the last part of his notes. The keeper is glad he stuck with a question about soccer, about the team and not about her.

“I’ll send it to you before publishing so if there are any adjustments to be made I still have enough time to do so.”

“Thank you.”  
“Off record. What is your take on the bribing charges against Luce Van Steen?”  
“Seeing the way the team came back when she stepped onto the pitch I think it is highly unlikely. If these journalists would know anything about women soccer, they would know we are not in it for the money so stating 500.000 euros would be enough money for a player to lose the game she loves. (which I find  insulting) than I don’t know why they call themselves sports journalists and not sensation-seeking paparazzi who write whatever they want to get as much clicks as possible, true story or not.”  
“Have you talked to her?”  
Hope looks at him as if he could not have asked her a more stupid question “Do you really think it would be smart for me to talk to the player that is accused of having accepted money to not win the game against us?”  
He shakes his head, Hope has a valid point.

  
“It was nice seeing you again. I missed you out there.”   
Hope smiles “Thank you. It is good to be back”  
“You’re welcome. Just know that whenever you want to get something out … I’m here for you.” He adds with a smile. Hope laughs and wishes him safe travels back. She watches him walk away and realizes it might be handy to have someone like him in her corner so sooner or later she’ll probably take him up on his offer.   


The keeper quickly goes back to her room to change and to grab some stuff before making the walk back down to the lobby.

While the team is waiting for Pinoe and Arod to arrive Kelley remembers she and Hope still have to talk. She knows now is not really the time to but she makes her way to her keeper. The keeper is standing a bit in the back, busy on her phone, so Kelley figures they can at least talk about the phone call.  
“Is she all right?”  
Hope looks at Kelley for a moment, not knowing who she is talking about before realizing Kelley is probably asking about Luce.  
“I don’t know. From what I got she is looking at a suspension but she is not going to fight it. Stating doesn’t want to, nor has the energy to do so.” it was clear Hope couldn’t believe Luce wouldn’t fight for herself.  
Kelley looks Hope in the eye trying to convey everything she wanted to say in the look she gives the keeper, she proceeds by patting Hope’s shoulder before turning around and answering the question JJ asked her a minute ago.

 

The speculations and accusations had been all over the news and social media. With the tweets and video people started to back off a bit and acknowledge the fact that the US were the rightful winners of the tournament.

 

They arrive at the FOX house.  
This time Kelley does notice and walks next to her girlfriend. To the outer world it looked like Hope was simply walking with an arm around her teammate, like many others did too. Some just because it is common thing to do, others to keep their balance. In reality Hope had her arm around Kelley so she could put most of her weight on the smaller woman. Usually the keeper takes the day off after a game, knowing her legs still aren’t strong enough to walk much after game day (especially by the end of the tournament) but with all this media she had to keep moving and her barely getting any sleep is also not helping.

 

If you know that just the day before the final Hope barely was able to walk and she spent most of the time in the pool, or sitting in her bed. Then it is quite remarkably for her to be walking right now. Long live her leg braces (and also her sweatpants, without them she would probably not be able to wear them without anyone noticing).

Kelley didn’t have to say anything, Hope knows she owns her girlfriend an explanation but for now a simple “Thank you” was all she could give.

The girls split up to do different interviews. These interviews are not their best ones, most of the girls still not fully captivated by the idea of them being world champs and some others are too hangover to come up with some brilliant answers. A few of the girls kick a ball around. Ryan gets to score a goal on Pinoe. Hope spots Mittsy alone for a moment and goes to thank her for last night. That is after checking both of their mics are turned off.

The team had expected all the interview, the signing, the picture taking. What the team didn’t expect was for Jill to be handling them the 3- star jerseys.

Jill is mic’ed up so she keeps telling herself to watch what she says. Apart from the names and an occasionally ‘good job’ Jill comes off kind of awkward.  
Hope watches Kelley getting her third star-jersey. After getting the jersey Kelley makes her way towards her teammates that had already gotten their jersey.   
 Commenting on what Jill said to Kelley, Hope, aware of the many cameras and microphones around her, whispers “she loves you huh. Should I worry?”    
Kelley playfully slaps Hope’s chest. Seeing the sudden interest of the camera man Kelley choses to not reply and be her usual self around the others.  


For the team picture, Kelley drags Hope next to her, wanting to have her girlfriend next to her. She did manage to get quite a few pictures of her and Hope (and the trophy) already but this is one she would love to add to that collection.

 

The team gets back in time for their call with the president. Some girls (Ashlyn) lie on the ground although most of them just sit on the ground, leaning against the wall or each other. Hope and Kelley sit a bit to the side, but with Abby lying next to Kelley, it is not really possible to hold a private conversation. By the time the president calls most of the girls are lying on the ground, holding up their phone to film the entire conversation, not just the part that will be shared with the outside.

 

The next couple of hours pass by in a rush. Luckily for Hope this also means Kelley has forgotten about the explanations Hope still owes her. Things die down a bit once the team got onto the plane. The flight to LA is short, too short. Some try to get at least some sleep, others are signing some jerseys for family or a teammate’s family, others are planning their schedule for the next couple of days, or you have people like Pinoe and Arod, who just continue partying.

 

Kelley is lying half on Hope’s chest. They had the rally in LA earlier today. They were surprised by the amount of people that showed up. And Hope learned that the G.O.A.T means something different than the meaning of goat she was taught so many years ago.  
  
“Are you sure you don’t want to come with me?” Kelley asks. Hope is pretty sure Kelley is trying to up her chances by adding the puppy eyes, but the keeper has her eyes closed so she isn’t influenced by them. Hope is absentmindedly stroking Kelley’s back “I can’t. I have to be in Seattle to train with the Reign.”   
Kelley lets out a sigh in disappointment, “I really wish you could come with me.”  
”I wish I could too” the moments she says those five words out loud Hope does feel guilty. 

So while sleep finds Kelley easy, Hope lies awake for quite some time. Eventually she falls asleep to Kelley’s soft snoring.

 

At the airport, the gals say goodbye, all of them leaving either for their hometown or for their club (town).  Kelley’s flight is the first one to go so Hope accompanies Kelley to her gate.   
Off course they get recognized and while waiting for the boarding call, Hope and Kelley hand out a ton of signatures, take pictures and answer questions.

The call comes too soon, not too soon for her hands (cramped from signing so many stuff), but too soon to say goodbye to Hope. Kelley hugs her keeper, savoring the moment. This will be the first time in over two months that they I’ll be hundreds of miles apart.  

Although their hug might seem casual Hope knows the internet will be full of pictures. If she should believe Kate, the internet (social media) is quite fond of their relationship. They are even given a shipping name. And for a moment Hope wonders if Kelley knows about this. Something makes her believe Kelley does. The keeper whispers an ‘I love you and let me know when you land’ in Kelley’s ear. The defender nods. She pats Hope on the chest before picking up her backpack and walking towards the jet way. The only upside of getting onto this plane is that the airline gave her an upgrade so at least she will be comfortable while sitting in the plane that will separate her and Hope. The keeper watches her girlfriend board the plane. 

Hope walks to the other side of the airport, passing once again through security. This time she has put on her snapback and makes sure to keep her head down, hoping she can get onto the plane without being spotted. She hands her boarding pass to the gate agent.  After reading it the man looks at her, he reads the boarding pass again and looks back up. This time he double-checks her passport, Hope is getting a bit nervous, he puts down the passport and types something in his computer.  
Hope is about to ask if something is wrong with her ticket when he hands her back her visa and takes a new boarding pass out of the printer “Have a safe flight Ms. Solo”.  
The keeper looks at the ticket, surprised to see she also received an upgrade. “Thank you! Have a nice day” with that the keeper walks onto the jet way. She hates flying and she hopes this way she’ll be a bit more comfortable and relaxed on her long flight.

 

3 hours into the flight she sends Kelley a message telling her she landed safely.

 

Kelley is going through her message while walking towards the arrival hall. She did have a Wi-Fi connection on the plane but since she slept the entire flight she didn’t really have a chance to read them. She’s excited to see she got a few messages from Hope, one of them telling her she landed safely. Kelley stops walking for a moment and drops her bag. She thinks about calling her keeper but remembers the keeper’s fear of flying and figures Hope would have crashed the minute she walked into their home. The defender sends out a quick reply before she picks her bag back up and continues her walk.

Kelley spots her mom and even though she has seen her in Vancouver after the final she still drops her bags and greets her mom like she would have done when they hadn’t seen each other for months.  
Karen isn’t surprised by her daughter’s antics and was fully prepared to catch her youngest daughter.

After embracing her daughter Karen looks to where her daughter came from, expecting to see her daughter’s girlfriend “Hope didn’t come?”  
“No”

Seeing Kelley’s smile falter Karen asks “She is not going to keep you a secret forever is she”  
“Mom, we are two to keep a secret and no we are not planning on keeping it a secret forever.” The soccer player replies, hoping her mom will drop it. But she is out of luck.

“Yeah but you are not the one quoted stating ‘you just aren’t into girls’,” her mom counters, wanting to get a real answer out of her daughter.

Kelley glares at her mom before picking up her bags and walking towards the exit.  
Karen quickly goes after her youngest daughter.  
“Sorry that was uncalled for-”  
“Can we just go home? I’m kind of exhausted.” Kelley interjects, really not wanting to have this discussion with her mom and certain not here, not right now.  
“Off course” Karen quickly replies and motions to take one of the bags but Kelley moves them out of her reach.  

 

 

 


	57. South

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As promised the next chapter.  
> It is shorter but I hope to get another one out this weekend.

“Damnit” Hope lets out angrily while kicking the boxing-bag. Somehow everything is going South today.

 

_Flashback to earlier today_

Shortly after touchdown the keeper finds out that the cab drivers are on some kind of strike today so she will have to take the train to get to the city. In America she would have taken an Uber but let that be exact reason why the cabdrivers have put down their work today. By the time Hope arrives at the train platform, it is already very crowded. Hope is not looking forward to take the train. It also didn’t help that the train was already packed before arrival at the airport. Hope does manage to somehow find enough space to slip onto the train.

 

Off course Kelley would be calling her the exact moment she is trying to explain to the conductor why she hasn’t got a ticket yet. She should have just let her phone ring, but it is Kelley. Hope cannot ignore her girlfriend.

So that is how Hope ended up trying to tell Kelley that this is really not a good time, that she will call back while at the same time trying to finish her explanation to the conductor. (This all without Kelley noticing she is on some crowded train in a foreign country and not in Seattle).

 

Hope believes she was doing quite well. That is off course until a voice sounds trough the PA system, announcing that they will soon arrive at the next stop. (This is only a guess since Hope doesn’t speak the language).

The keeper tries to cover the speaker but it is too late, she knows Kelley heard it.  
After a second of silence Hope starts talking very fast, trying to give some kind of explanation. But it’s all to no avail. Kelley cuts her off mid-sentence by ending the phone call.

 

Next thing Hope knows, she is dragged out off the train by the. By the time Hope’s mind has caught up with reality the train is already long gone and she is left behind in some dead ass Railway station.

Hope just looks lost, the place doesn’t even have a small building wherein she can either wait for the next train or ask for some information. Not too far away from her there are a few boards. Hope checks the papers them to see when the next train will come. According to her watch it is 8 AM so the next train will arrive in …. Hope scans the paper with her finger … in 5 minutes. She double checks making sure the city she wants to go to is one of the stops. It isn’t. The keeper looks a bit further. The next train she is able to take will come in 7 minutes.

 

10 minutes later and Hope hasn’t seen a train yet. It is only then that she realizes her watch is still showing PCT time and not the European time. She would have figured this out earlier if she hadn’t been so exhausted or if she had paid more attention instead of going stuff in her mind. The keeper notices a clock on one of the lighting poles. It shows 5.10 PM

The keeper once again goes over the yellow papers. The next train she can catch arrives in fifteen minutes. She sits down on the ground and waits for the train to arrive. _At least it isn’t raining_ Hope thinks, trying to stay positive.

This time Hope looks for the conductor before getting onto the train and asks if it is possible to buy a ticket on the train with an American credit card. She really hopes she can otherwise she will be stuck here for a very long time or she will have to sneak onto the train, hoping she won’t be discovered till she is at her destination. Hope gets an affirmative answer and is told to get onto the train and take a seat. The conductor tells her she will come by once the train is underway.

Hope takes a seat and waits for the conductor to arrive. The train arrives at her destination before the conductor has a chance to come look for her. So the one positive thing out of all this is that she got here for free.

 Now all she had to do was to remember the way she’s supposed to walk. She appeared to have a better memory than she credits herself with because the walk towards the apartment might have been the only thing in the last couple of hours that didn’t go South.

But off course she ran out of luck again and arrived to a deserted apartment. With the amount of dust lying around Hope knows Luce hasn’t been back since before the start of the World Cup or she has been back for only a few seconds to pack some more stuff. None of her World Cup stuff are lying around and the empty fridge is also a sign that if she came back she left for longer than just a short day trip.

 

_End of flashback_

_  
_ The boxing-bag has to endure some more punches and kicks before the keeper sits down on the couch. She closes her eyes, trying to clear her mind.

 

 _Damnit Luce._ The keeper also blames herself. It isn’t the first time she finds herself in a position like this one. She should have known this is probably one of the last places Luce would want to be in right now. You see Hope’s friend has a tendency to disappear whenever she was hurting, not wanting her friends to see her suffer. This also means the striker is most certainly not coping as well as Hope believed she was.

Feeling she is about to fall asleep, Hope opens her eyes and looks around. Apart from the usual furniture, a rocking chair and an almost finished drawing of a map of the earth the apartment is pretty empty.          
Hope walks towards the wall with the drawing of the earth on it. A stool, with a stack of papers lying on top of it, stands next to the wall. She picks the papers up and looks at them. At first sight it is just a bunch of number that are scribbled onto the paper, but after reading the small notes Hope realizes these are the calculations of the map. The keeper takes a few steps back and looks at the drawing. It does correspond with the image she has in her head of how the world looks like. Hope puts the papers back, making sure they are in the same order then she found them in.

The keeper searches the loft, nowhere does she find a clue as to where Luce could be.

One picture, the only picture she has noticed so far, catches her eye. She has a pretty good idea what is on the picture. While rubbing away the dust, so she is able to see the picture, Hope wonders how long it has been since the last time Luce has set foot in this place. Seeing the scenery of the picture, memories flash though her mind. A smile appears on the keeper’s face. She takes out her phone and takes a picture of the picture before placing the original picture back.

Hope thinks about calling Luce, since the younger woman has failed to answer any of her previous 6 calls (or voicemails) she decides against it. Switches off her phone and throws it onto the couch.

The keeper is hungry, she knows the fridge is empty but she doesn’t feel like walking outside and go looking for some supermarket. So she searches the cabinets and comes up with enough ingredients to make a simple dinner. She did make a quick trip down to ask the old lady, who lives on the first level, if she could get some vegetables.

While eating her dinner Hope walks towards the window and looks outside. She watches people walking alongside the river, people sitting near the riverside, cars driving by. Her bowl is already finished but the keeper keeps standing in front of the window, watching a boat that sails by. It reminds her to the times she used to sail with her mom. The keeper makes a mental note to maybe pick that back up and try to go sailing with her mom in the off season.

 

After having done the dishes Hope gets her bags, takes out her laptop and sits down in the rocking chair. She plugs the network cable into her laptop and switches it on. The keeper ignores the notifications and mails that appear on her screen. She first looks for plane tickets back to the States. She has to take the plane back tomorrow morning if she wants to make it in time for the team meeting before the ticker tape parade.

Not long after the low battery notification appears. The keeper grunts, puts her laptop aside and walks towards her bag to get her charger. She has the charger already in her hands before she realizes she cannot use this one around here. Knowing all about Luce’s hate towards Apple products, Hope knows she shouldn’t look for a European one. Because she will not find one. In her previous search through the apartment she also didn’t stumble upon a converter so she quickly buys her ticket and switches off her computer, saving whatever batter she has left for emergencies.

Hope sits back down in the rocking chair and decides to pray for a miracle. Waiting for Luce to arrive, Hope falls asleep in the rocking chair.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HAPPY NEW YEAR!!


	58. Back home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is kind of the same as last chapter. Only this one is in Kelley;s POV.

Kelley is happy. A new day begins, she wakes up in her childhood bed, she (still) is a World Champion, she gets to spend time with her family (having her mother already forgiven for yesterday’s incident at the airport).

But first, Kelley takes her phone and sends Hope a good morning text. She doesn’t get an immediate reply, seeing it is only 6 AM in Seattle Kelley doesn’t really think anything special of it. She puts her phone back away and grabs her stuffed squirrel, who is supporting a shiny golden medal around its neck, holds it close and falls back asleep. Fully intend on making good use of the fact that she can sleep as long as she wants to.

Having woken up early for the last couple of months, Kelley’s body doesn’t really want to stay in bed, it wants to get moving. So fifteen minutes later, Kelley stretches and gets out of bed. She leaves her squirrel (and medal) in bed and walks down. “Morning dad” She sleepily says to her father who is on his way out. “Morning kiddo” Dan replies before walking outside. Given the late hour Kelley knows her parents (and most probably also Erin) have already eaten so she grabs herself a bowl, fills it with cereal and tops it off with some water. Seeing she hasn’t caught a glimpse of her mom yet the defender sneaks into the living room. She knows her mom doesn’t approve of her watching TV while eating breakfast but it has been so long since Kelley has been able to do so she decides it is worth the shot.

Ten minutes into the show Kelley hears her mother coming into the room.  
At first she freezes, then she puts up the most innocent look she can muster and turns around.  
Karen caves eventually and lets her daughter have breakfast in the living room.  
Maybe she also felt a little guilty after yesterday.  
“Mom, you are getting soft” Erin says and jumps onto the couch.  
Karen is ready to protest but since she didn’t tell Kelley to move to the kitchen she figures it would be unfair if she told Erin to stop doing so. She just gives Erin a look and walks away, muttering something that isn’t picked up by either of the girls. As soon as Karen is out of sight Erin drops down on the couch, next to Kelley.

Karen watches her two girls and smiles. It is good to see 15 years later and a World Cup win later nothing has changed between those two.

 

Kelley is getting restless again so the two girls decide to go for a run, just a casual jog, no sprints.  
Coming back into her room Kelley remembers the text she sent Hope. She checks her phone, still no reply. Kelley quickly calculates what time it is in Seattle, 8 AM, Hope should be awake by now. The defender decides to call her girlfriend. Hope picks up after a few rings. There is a lot of background noise so it is hard to understand what her girlfriend is saying.

Kelley wonders where Hope is hanging out to have this level of noise so early in the morning. Then there is this voice that sounds through the speaker ”Goede middag dames en heren van harte welkom op de IC trein met bestemming Antwerpen Centraal. We komen dadelijk aan in-“ that’s all Kelley has to hear to know there is no way that Hope is in Seattle.

She can hear Hope talking but she is no longer listening. Kelley cannot believe it. She cuts Hope off mid-sentence by ending the call and flings her phone on her bed. Kelley is pissed, she is fuming. She doesn’t know exactly where Hope is or why she is there but she has pretty good idea. The fact that the keeper would rather be with her ‘friend’ than with her, her girlfriend, also goes through Kelley’s mind.

 But that is not the thing that enrages her the most. It is the fact that her girlfriend lied to her telling her she would be in Seattle while she most clearly is not.

She knows she cannot face her family like this, she is too worked up. The defender rummages through her luggage and picks out some shorts and shirt. She doesn’t even look if she put the shirt on the right way (she didn’t, it is inside out). She grabs her socks and UA running shoes and walks out of her room. Her phone is left behind. Once in front of the door she quickly puts on her shoes.

Erin had finished changing into her running gear a minute or so earlier. She was discussing dinner plans with her mom when Kelley had come storming down. She tells Kelley she’ll be there in a minute but next thing she hears is Kelley yelling “I’m going for a run” and the sound of the door opening and closing.

The defender was too worked up to hear to hear her sister so she left without Erin. Erin hurryingly put on her running shoes, yells she is going for a run and starts the pursuit.

 

 

She should have known, with Kelley coming off a world cup, it would be impossible for her to catch up with her sister. Not that she is out of shape, she just isn’t in professional soccer player shape. _Why does she have to be this damn fit?_ Erin thinks while sprinting like a mad man, trying to catch up with her sister.

 _  
_ Erin, bright red and already gasping for air, slows down a bit. She knows she cannot keep sprinting like this and all she can hope for is that Kelley also has to slow down.

 

The defender is currently running some old trail, it is the trail she used to run whenever something was bothering her or whenever she just wanted to escape the real world for a while. But she doesn’t register her surroundings, she just blocks everything out and goes as hard as she can. Somehow she manages to keep running without stumbling.

 

Erin has no chance catching her sister. She last spotted her younger sister fifteen minutes ago. Erin wonders why she keeps running. Her sister could have taken a hundred different paths. She doesn’t even know which of the paths she is following. Erin stops for a moment and looks around. Continue running is useless so she turns back around and starts running back. By the time Erin arrives back at their house (after a few detours) she still hasn’t figured out what may have happened that got her sister to practically sprint out of her room and just keep going. Kelley had been her usual self when her and their mom arrived at the house yesterday evening. She did seem to be a more distant towards their mom. But Kelley is not one to hold a grudge so whatever happened their mom was probably not the trigger.

 

 

Erin decides to wait outside for Kelley, she might get her sister to talk when it is just the two of them.

 

While waiting for Kelley to arrive Erin thinks of things that might have happened for her sister to react this way. She thinks about asking Hope but decides against it. If Hope is the reason for all of this than it is not a smart idea for her to text the keeper. If Hope doesn’t know than it is not up to her to inform the keeper about it.

 

Kelley stops running. She is leaning forward, hands on her knees, gasping for air. After running full speed for way too long, her lungs almost exploding the defender had to stop running for a moment.

Her breathing has calmed down a bit and she remembers she and her sister originally planned to go on a run together. Kelley feels guilty for leaving her sister behind but this was the only thing that could keep her from stepping onto a plane and fly to her keeper to give Hope a piece of her mind (or from smashing something).  
Kelley doesn’t get it. She doesn’t get what the deal is between Hope and Luce. She doesn’t get why Hope didn’t just say she was going to see Luce. Kelley would not have been angry if her keeper just told her. But instead Hope kept Kelley once again at a distance, not letting her in on her plans.

This once again enraged Kelley and also reminded her on the fact as to way she took off in first place. Kelley jumps up and starts running again, this time at a little bit slower pace, allowing her to run for much longer.

 

By the time Kelley arrives back home lunch is already long over. Not that she or Erin eat any. Well for Erin that is apart from the peach and sandwich her mother brought her. In meantime Erin also completed some Sudoku’s and she has used up the battery of her iPhone playing games and surfing on the internet.

The defender drops down in the chair. Her heartbeat is still sky high. If Dawn would have been here she probably would have given her a speech for running for so long without warm-up or without keeping her body hydrated but the English woman isn’t here so Kelley doesn’t get the speech. The defender does gladly accept the bottle of chocolate milk that Erin got her. After downing it pretty quick she looks at her feet for a moment. “I’m sorry for taking off like that. I didn’t intend to leave you behind.”  
“Well if your intention was to make me realize I urgently have to hit the gym, then you succeeded” Erin says with a smile.

 _This is why I love Erin_ Kelley thinks. Her sister knows when to push and when to let come Kelley come to her to tell what it is that is bothering her.

“Now that you mention it” Kelley begins to say but doesn’t finish her sentence after the entire content of Erin’s glass was splashed onto her.  
Kelley sits there for a moment, hands up, mouth open in disbelieve. The next second she chases her sister. Upon hearing all the noise Karen and Dan come running out to see what is happening, only to see Kelley pushing Erin into the lake. The older woman’s reflexes were fast enough though for Erin to be able to drag Kelley with her.

The two parents just stand there, shaking their head. They both do have a smirk on their face though. Karen recognizes the look in her man’s eyes.  
“No, no, no” She says while holding her hands up in front of her and backing away.  
A few seconds later she is dumped into the water next to her two daughters.  
She can count on her daughters to retaliate and get their father also into the water. Although it did take the two girls a while to overpower their father.

Later that evening, after dinner, the four of them sit outside and fight out their battle over a game of the settlers of Catan. Karen’s tactic was to get the longest street to give her a two-point advantage, Dan decided to use is naval combat tactics to try to win the game, Erin uses her trade skills to get the best deals while Kelley just tries to get the other drunk so she can get them to do whatever she wants them to do.

To Kelley’s surprise her mom wins the game. Erin talks about how the game is not called longest street of Catan but Settlers of Catan, Dan rambling about how they should get the Seafarers expansion pack. Kelley is at a momentarily loss of speech and empties the bottle of wine she had been using to get her family drunk. She should have known that her plan wouldn’t work, her family is not like her teammates on the USWNT, they are also Irish so she will not be able to outdrink them.

Kelley acknowledges defeat, she says goodnight to her parents and helps her sister get inside. Maybe her plan did work on Erin. The defender falls asleep without having thought about her girlfriend or Luce.

 

On Thursday morning the two sisters take the plane to NY. The team would come together Friday morning, before the ticker tape parade. Erin joins Kelley on the flight North because she has to finish up some work but little does she know Kelley plans on taking her with her to the ticker tape parade. US soccer informed her she could take one person with her on the bus and Erin was the first person that came to her mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter Kelley will finally gets some answers and Hope will realise her trip to Europe has more consequences than Kelley being angry at her


	59. She wanted it to be like in the movies but what she got in reality was nothing like it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> warning, I did write this chapter on my phone so there might be more typing errors than usual. I apologise and hope you enjoy this chapter nonetheless.

 

Hope has been walking around for a while. She tried to come up with an explanation. But her mind was just one big blur. Eventually she decides to just get it over with and flags down a cab.

Once seated she gives the driver Kelley’s address. The keeper looks outside, she tries to keep her mind busy, watching the people they are passing by and wondering what they are going to do. That doesn’t last long though, soon she is once again thinking about what she should tell Kelley.

  
The driver must have picked up on her nerves, her leg bouncing up and down is a big give away. "What brings you to New York?”  
The question forces Hope to stop thinking about what might come and forces her to start thinking about a reply.

  
“Business?” The driver tries.  
Hope chuckles, the outfit she is wearing (US Soccer training pants and Nike shirt) doesn’t really scream business. Although in her case that outfit could have been her ‘business outfit’, just not today, not now.  
“No, I’m here to see a friend” The keeper replies.  
“Actually I hope I’ll still be able to call her my fried” Hope adds after a while. She isn’t sure why she does added the last part.  
"I messed up big time" she quietly confesses.

She waits for some wise comment from the man that will tell her it isn't as bad as she thinks it is and that everything will be ok, like you see in the movies. But all she gets in reply is "sometimes you screw up and the other one isn't able to forgive you. The most important fact isn't the other one forgiving you, it is that you know you screwed up, you learn from it and move on."

She asks the cab driver to stop a few blocks from the apartment. Feeling she could use some fresh air before facing Kelley. He wishes her good luck and gives her his number, for Hope to call him next time she needs a cab in NY. The keeper also uses the walk to think some more, not that she hadn’t got enough time already. She had an entire cross-Atlantic flight to come up with an explanation. Truth be told she just doesn't know where to begin.

Hope arrives at Kelley’s place. Only 2 more flights of stairs before she runs out of time to come up with a good explanation. Hope stands in front of the door, key already in her hand but she hesitates. The keeper feels like she doesn’t have to right to use now so she puts her keys away and knocks on the door. She takes a step back and wait. In the few seconds it takes for Kelley to open the door Hope had completely lost all faith in herself. The keeper looks at her girlfriend. Hope isn’t sure how to greet Kelley, _Do I give her a kiss?_  
Kelley turns around and walks into the apartment. _Guess that’s a no._

The brief moment Kelley had looked at Hope she had noted the keeper looking nervous and tired.  
Hope drops her bags in the hallway, that way she won’t have to retrieve them from the bedroom when she goes looking for a hotel. Kelley has already made her way to the living room. So Hope takes off her shoes and walks up to the defender.  
“I’m sorry" is all Hope manages to say. Somehow seeing the hurt in Kelley's eyes made her forget all the stuff she had come up with.

With every second of silence passing by after this Kelley gets more agitated. _After all that has happened, I'm sorry is al she can come up with?_ The defender runs out of patience so she decides to speak first, hoping this might give her some insight on why her girlfriend acted they way she did .  
“Why is she so important to you?”  
Hope doesn't ask for clarification.  
She knows exactly who Kelley is asking about.  
What she doesn't know is where to start.

The keeper diverts her gaze, no longer being able to look at the hurt in her girlfriend's eyes, knowing she caused all the hurt. Hope's gaze lands upon a picture of her, Kelley and Tobin, taken by Claire. They all look so happy on it. She then remembers the other picture and quickly grabs her phone with her right hand while holding up a finger of her left hand, signalling Kelley to hold on for a moment.

It doesn't take Hope too long to find the picture she is looking for. After all, it is the last picture she has taken.  
Still looking at her phone, Hope says “You know my father was in the military.” Kelley nods. Hope briefly had mentioned that fact that her father served in the military but apart from that they didn’t really talk about it.  
“Luce’s father was my father best mate in the army.”  
Hope hands her phone to Kelley and continues her story “I have known her since she was a baby. She wasn’t always around but she is the one person that has been consistently in my life for the past 20 something years.”

Kelley looks at the phone, on it is a picture of Hope (and Luce). The keeper cannot be older than 12 years.  
Hope looks at Kelley.  
“Van Steen doesn’t really sound American and ….”  
“Neither does Solo” Hope interject, "Neither does Solo” Kelley repeats. The fact Hope still hasn't the same smile today amazes her.

 

"Wait does that mean she has dual nationality?"  
Hope nods, not sure where Kelley is going with this.  
"So we could have had her on our team?"

As much as Hope would have loved, wait scrap that, Hope doesn't mind Luce having chosen to not play for the US. Luce has always been part of her life outside soccer and Hope would like to keep it that way. Although with not only Kelley but also Cheney knowing about Luce this has become significantly more difficult.

"The only reason she started playing is because she wanted to be like me but I didn't think she would ever go pro.The only reason she plays for Belgium is because of the promise she made to the coach. Although she isn’t one to stick around for very long. She probably wouldn’t make it through January camp. I’m surprised she even made it to and through the world cup.” Hope says. “I guess that the traveling through Canada helped.” She adds as an afterthought.

"The one thing you can count on is Luce keeping her promise." Hope finishes her original sentence.  
"Once you have been able to make her your friend. She will walk through fire for you."

"What happened when she wasn't around?" Kelley asks, wanting to get to know the younger woman better since she clearly is someone important to Hope.  
"I don’t know, the just disappeared, I tried to locate them through the military but there were no records of her/ her father."  
"Maybe they are CIA” Kelley says jokingly.  
“She is not CIA." Hope replies, maybe just a second too fast.

They both are silent for a moment. Kelley clears her throat before placing her hand on Hope's thigh and saying " I’m sorry for cutting you off the other day but why couldn’t you just have told me before? Was it something I did. Because all of a sudden you started shutting me out and"  
Hope places her hand on top of Kelley's, silencing the defender. "You have nothing to apologize for.It is me who should apologise. I should told you about what was going on and I certainly shouldn’t have lied about where I was going to.”  
Then she looks Kelley in the eye before continuing, "it wasn’t. It ISN’T you. It’s me, I." "It is just” the keeper tries “I feel like .."  
This is clearly not working. The keeper takes a few breathes and tries to order her thoughts.

"She has always been part of my life outside of soccer. So I'm not used to share stories about her with anyone on the team. I'm not saying you are just another team member." Kelley squeezes Hope's hand, she knows what Hope means.  
"I'm sorry for not talking about her with you. It is just, it is just not really how Luce and I work so talking about her feels wrong."

  
Before Hope can elaborate that statement her phone rings. The keeper looks at the caller ID, “I really have to take this” she says while looking at her girlfriend, Kelley nods “I should start making dinner anyways.”  
Hope is about to lean in to quickly kiss Kelley on the lips but changes her mind, still not sure if she's entirely out of the woods. She settles for a kiss on the cheek before walking onto the balcony.  
“Are you back in the States?”

Hearing the tone of her agent’s voice Hope knows she is in trouble.  
“Yes, I am in New York with Kelley.”  
“Good”  
“Why? What is going on?”  
“Why did you go to Europe?”  
“I wanted to ...Wait, how did you know I was in Europe.” As far as the keeper knows she wasn’t spotted.  
“I received a call from my friend who works for the FIFA. They have opened an investigation in your involvement in the fixing of the World Game Final.”

Hope swears time stands still for a second or two.  
“What? How? Why?”  
“Apparently they found your behavior suspicious and when they got word of you flying to Belgium. Let’s just say that didn’t really help your case.”  
Hope could kick herself. How could she not have thought about that? Trying to make things better she just made thing worse, for the both of them.

“Have you ever given money to Luce or lend some?"  
“No. I mean, apart from paying for dinner,I don’t think I ever lend money or accepted money from her." She didn’t dare to ask why.  
“Good, cause they will probably go through everything to prove their case.”  
Hearing this the keeper looks around, Maybe they are spying on me now, she doesn’t spot anyone suspicious but decides to go back inside anyways.  
While walking towards the guest bedroom she spots Kelley multi tasking, cooking and texting.  
The keeper wonders how many bandages they will need this time.

"What should I do?” the keeper asks.  
"Just keep your head down. Do not contact Luce and don’t talk about it. From what I’ve heard they are keeping this investigation on the down low for now. So let’s keep it this way.”  
“What about Kelley?” The keeper asks. She knows if this thing comes out she can forget about her relationship with Kelley.  
“Don’t tell her, at least not yet.”  
Hope doesn’t know about that. The defender forgave her this time for lying but Hope doesn’t know if she could get away with keeping something from her, seconds after promising to not keep Kelley out of the loop.

Sensing Hope’s hesitation, the agent adds “This investigation will most likely be closed within the week when they realize this entire thing is just one big misunderstanding so there is no point in worrying Kelley. If they are still investigating next week, you can tell her.”  
The keeper is more comfortable with this offer, soon after agreeing to this deal Hope ends the call.

The keeper does stay in the room for a few more minutes, trying to wrap her mind around what happened in these last couple of minutes. Once she kind of managed to do so Hope’s first reaction was to call Luce. She had her finger already hovering above the younger girl’s name before she realized she wasn’t allowed to do so. _Damnit_ , throwing her phone against the wall is also not an ideal situation because then she’ll have to explain Kelley why she did so and it would be another lie. Instead she stands up and walks into Kelley’s room, she plugs in her phone before opening one of the drawers.

Hope takes out a shirt and makes her way to the bathroom.  
The keeper splashes some ice cold water in her face, not caring that her hair or the shirt she is wearing also get wet. _Why do I always need to get myself into situations like this one?_ A few more splashes later, Hope has finally managed to push recent events to the back of her mind. She takes off her shirt and drops it into the laundry basket. Hope thinks about taking a quick shower but with Kelley probably having finished cooking by now Hope just pulls the clean shirt over her head and walks out of the bathroom.

“Everything ok?” Kelley asks while locking her phone and putting it aside.  
"Yeah, just my agent checking up on me. He would like for me to come visit him and talk some new endorsements."  
Which isn’t an entire lie, they did talk about possible new sponsors.  
"New sponsors?"  
"Yeah. Comeback goalkeeper wins golden glove at Women’s World Cup makes a great slogan."  
Kelley can see the smile but she could also see the look in Hope’s eyes.  
The defender puts her hand on Hope’s.  
“I’m fine Kelley” the keeper says softly, giving the defender no chance to voice her concern. She picks up the two plates and makes her to the table.

Kelley sighs in frustration. They really have to talk about this. She gets that Hope doesn’t want to talk about it with the press but as long as she does not do so, she will not be able to let it behind her.  
The defender joins her girlfriend at the table. Kelley had decided to not bring up the Luce subject again. She already got some answers, maybe she’ll get some more from the Belgian player herself (If she really is CIA that might not be as easy as planned).  
Thinking about all this, Kelley cannot help but coming up with more questions. She looks around before leaning forward. By now Hope has put down her utensils, curious as to whatever Kelley has up her sleeve.

“You CIA?” Kelley nervously whisper asks. Kelley could slap herself. This is not how she wanted to ask her girlfriend if she is a CIA operative.  
Hope barely succeeds in containing the laugh that threatened to escape.  
“Are you asking me if I’m a CIA operative?” She whispers, playing along.Kelley nods.  
“Well I’m pretty sure you have to speak at least 4 languages to be CIA. I only speak 3 … now that I think about it, it’s more like 1 and 2 halves.” Hope casually replies before taking a sip of her glass of wine.  
It seems logical. Kelley is about to start eating when she comes up with another question.  
“How many languages does Luce speak?”  
Hope cocks an eyebrow and the look she gives Kelley makes the defender say “Never mind”.  
“As far as I know she speaks 3 languages but I don’t know how many she understands.” Hope says.  
What does that mean?  
“Europeans, you know. Proclaiming they understand the languages of their neighboring countries, even though they really don’t.” the keeper adds, hoping after this they can drop the CIA subject all together.

Kelley smiles, she remembers Pinoe, at the World Cup, claiming to understand Italian and Swiss since she has played one season with Olympic Lyon. (Lyon being 'close' to the border with Switzerland and Italy)  
That is until Tobin pointed out that Swiss isn't a language at all. The language spoken by the Swiss is either German, French or Italian.

  
Later that night, after Hope quickly took a shower while Kelley did the dishes and sent her sister a text to come back tomorrow morning for breakfast (implying she would love for Erin spend the night at her own place).

The couple is currently sitting on the floor, drinking wine while playing some board games. Kelley has already won the last 5 ones.

Hoping she might have more luck if they play a game the defender doesn’t know yet, the keeper gets up and makes her way to the hallway.  
Kelley, who was about to take a sip of her glass of wine, puts her glass back down upon seeing Hope walk back into the room, holding two decks of cards.  
“What's next?" Kelley asks, confident she is also going to win this game.  
Crapette” Hope says while sitting down on the floor, facing Kelley.  
“Crap.. what?” Kelley asks.  
“Not crap, Crapette” Hope says, pronouncing the last word with a French accent. Or as close to a French accent she manages to come.  
“You have to come up with a French game to win?” Kelley asks with a smirk?

"I do not need to play a French game to win. What I do need is someone to play against so next time I can beat Luce." Hope says while handing Kelley one of the two decks.

Kelley is already looking forward to play the game. Not only because she loves to play new games or because she is quite certain she can beat Hope.  
But because this gives her the opportunity to add another game to the list of games she can beat Alex in. And off course, Hope sharing just a bit more with her is also a plus.

The first game Hope won by a landslide. She could see Kelley got the hang of the basics in the second one. Although halfway into the game Hope notices Kelley’s mind is elsewhere.

“What’s on your mind?” Hope says, putting down her deck of cards.  
Kelley shouldn’t be surprised, Hope managed to notice whenever she's lost in something. Kelley can kick herself for thinking this right now. She had told herself to have a real talk after all off this. A talk about the two of them.  
"I was thinking," Kelley looks at her girlfriend “With me already asking a lot of questions tonight. Can I ask one more?”  
“Off course”  
“When do we plan on telling our friends?”  
Hope doesn’t ask Kelley to elaborate on the question because she knows what her girlfriend is asking for. She knows that even though the gals won’t say anything. Telling them means also telling the coaching staff, telling the world. Although she knew this question would come up sooner or later, she just wished it didn’t come up tonight. Guess she used up all her luck with Kelley forgiving her this easily after she shut her out and lied to her.

  
The following morning Hope wakes up to the buzzing of her phone. She vaguely checks her phone. Messages, some of them accompanied by quotes and pictures out of various newspapers, sent by their teammates, mostly Abby. Hope switches her phone off. For now, it is just Hope Solo and Kelley O’Hara and not yet Hope Solo, Kelley O’Hara and the rest of the world. The keeper turns back around and drapes her arm around Kelley, pulling her girlfriend closer. It doesn’t take Hope too long to fall back asleep.

Hope is in the kitchen making coffee while Kelley finishes showering.  
The keeper is humming along some song she knows Kelley likes but for the love of God cannot remember the name of the song or artist, when she spots her girlfriend walking into the room.  
“Oh no” the keeper says, upon seeing the look in her girlfriend’s eyes.  
“What?” Kelley asks innocently “I didn’t even say something.”  
“You didn’t have to. I know that look.” Hope says and leaves her coffee for what it is “What is it?”

Kelley quickly walks towards her girlfriend and holds up her phone.

‘FBI ARRESTS FIFA OFFICIALS’  
‘FIFA OFFICIALS ARRESTED ON CORRUPTION CHARGES.’  
Hope doesn’t really need to scroll any further, she saw most of the messages over an hour ago.  
Kelley looks pointedly at Hope but before either of the two can say something the doorbell rings.  
“FBI Kelley, not CIA!” Hope says, knowing what her girlfriend is thinking about.  
“Only a two letter difference.” The defender casually says before opening the door and greeting Tobin.  
Hope is still shaking her head by the time the two younger women make it back inside. The keeper locks Kelley’s phone and leaves it behind on the counter to greet her friend.

While Kelley gives Tobin a quick tour of the apartment, Hope start making breakfast.

Luckily for Hope, Kelley just finished the tour by the time Erin arrived.

At breakfast Hope mainly listens to the two O’Hara’s and Tobin.Not that she didn't find their conversation interesting, she is just wondering if the FBI arresting FIFA members is helping her case of not. Last thing she wants is not only have the FIFA investigate her but also the FBI. The FBI case will become a public one, meaning her life outside soccer will also become public.  
Hope suddenly feels a hand on her thigh and looks up at Kelley. “Can you pass me the pancakes please?”  
“Haven't you had enough already?" Hope asks, not realising her girlfriend just saved her from the questions Erin was about to ask her.

  
Kelley pouts and reasons she needs extra for the ticker tape parade.  
“I hate to break it to you Kelley but all you have to do is stand on top of some bus and wave.” Tobin remarks.

  
“Do you know how exhausted that is?" Kelley asks. Hope shakes her head, _Kelley O'Hara World Cup champion ladies and gentlemen._  
Kelley continues by serving her sister a batch of pancakes. She is about to protest but The defender validates her actions saying she'll need it.  
"Why I have the day off today. I'm not really planning on running a marathon.  
"Good because I put you down as mine plus one for the ticker tape parade."  
"You are tacking me? I get to be on the bus with you guys?" Erin asks excited.

"Off course I'm taking you. It is not like I can surprise my girlfriend with it.”  
Hope apologetic lays her hand on Kelley’s thigh. In response, Kelley quickly pecks her on the lips. She keeps it short, not wanting to give Erin the opportunity tease them. Plus she (as is Hope) isn't too big of a fan of showing affection in front of others.

The trio (Erin will join them later) arrive at the hotel the USWNT will be staying at during their time in NY.  
Once inside Hope is off with Carli and JJ. For a second Kelley wonders if it will always be like this when they are with the team, but then she remembers the conversation they had at their apartment. She smiles for a second, letting her mind go back to yesterday evening’s events. Alex calling her name makes her snap out of it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


	60. Dust

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is also written on my phone.

Hope and Pinoe share a flight to Seattle. The blonde somehow managed to fix them business seats.

Since take-off Pinoe had not stopped talking for more than five minutes at a time. Hope does mind though. It keeps her mind from going over a hundred different 'what if?' scenarios.

The two players managed to walk fairly unnoticed through the arrival hall. A little boy and girl recognise them and they do have the courage to walk up to them.  
The two women listen to their story, give away some signatures and let the children's parents take a picture of the four of them.  
After a final "you're welcome" the two speed up their tempo.  
They are both tired and want to get home. Once outside, Pinoe spots her girlfriend pretty quickly.

Pinoe uses the drive to Hope's house to brief Sera (and Hope) on the Taylor Swift experience. This time, Hope barely pays attention to the midfielder. That is until Pinoe tries to grab her phone to see who is important enough to be able to get Hope all focused on her phone instead of on the awesome Taylor Swift story.

"Is there some mysterious man I do not know about?" Pinoe asks hoping to get some interesting facts that she can brag about in the group chat "or is it just Carli, discussing her plans to take over the entire offence?"

  
Hope just locks her phone and asks about Taylor's after party. From the brief story Kelley told her Hope knows Pinoe's level of intoxication must have come close to the level of intoxication at the World Cup after party.

Pinoe quickly tries to salvage her reputation and forgets all about the question she asked the keeper. Hope does spot Sera looking at her in the rear-view mirror.

For the remainder of the drive, Hope only sends 5 more texts.

The keeper would have asked the couple to come inside and would have offered them something to drink and eat. Knowing she emptied her kitchen prior to the pre-World Cup camp Hope's afraid she can only serve them strong drinks, not that Pinoe would mind. So instead the keeper just thanks them and tells Pinoe she will see her at the Reign training.

  
Once the duo has driven away Hope shoulders her bag, takes out her keys and walks towards the door. After opening the door, the keeper walks inside. She drops her bag in the hallway, sends Kelley one final text and makes her way upstairs, without really looking around.  
A minute later the keeper lies in bed, asleep. She didn't even bother to change her outfit.

  
The following day Hope wakes up around noon. It has been a long time since the goalkeeper has slept in this long so she feels groggy. After a quick shower her body feels a bit more awake. All she needs now, is some coffee to wake up her mind.

The keeper walks down the stairs and goes in a straight line to cabinet her coffee beans are in.   
She opens the cabinet and has her arm already raised, to grab the bag of beans, only to realise the cabinet is empty.

The keeper shakes her head, closes the cabinet and turns around. Only now does she look around. The house is empty and silent. At times like this she misses having Leo and Kelley around. She even misses Captain Sully. But now, it is just her and three months worth of dust.   
Hope was about to convince herself on getting another dog when she notices an empty, dust-free spot. The keeper quickly runs towards the front of the house, sliding the last couple of yards. She comes to a stop inches before smashing against the window.

She looks outside, her driveway is empty.  
 _No no no no._  
The keeper tries to remember if she let her car outside or if she was smart enough to park it inside the garage. She hopes she was smart but decides to check it out.

There is a car inside her garage, just not one Hope recognises.  
The keeper notices a few posted notes, sticking to the side of the car.

Reading the note does calm Hope down. But at the same time it makes her feel stupid.  
She traveled all the way to Europe only to come back and find out Luce had been here in the meantime.

Before the keeper can worry about this any further the alarm, she set on her phone earlier, goes off.   
The keeper hurries inside, grabs her wallet, the keys of her house, a jacket and puts on some shoes before walking outside, locking her door and entering the garage.

She grabs the car keys, that are lying on the car's hood, and steps into the car.  
One plus side (for her legs) is that this car is an automatic.  
Hope pushes the button to open her garage door and waits for it to have opened completely.

The car looked like it belonged to the special forces and Hope noticed a few people switched lanes to let her pass. So without going over the speed limit, Hope makes it in time for her appointment with Mac.

  
Hope is on her way back from Mac. After noticing the time the keeper decide to make a small detour and stop by Memorial stadium.  
She parks her car on the visitors' parking (she forgot her Reign parking card at home). Crosses the parking to quickly get a coffee before she makes her way into the stadium.

Hope sits down in the stands without being noticed by one of the players.

The team is just doing some cooling down exercises but Hope would love to be able to be down there, participating. But instead she is sitting up here, once again not playing.

Mac wasn't too thrilled to see her. He was glad to see his friend. He just wasn't thrilled to see the state her body is in.

The tournament is hard, the turf made it even harder. Hope knew her body ( mainly her legs) wasn't nearly as strong as the last time she has participated in a World Cup. But with the help of the buzz, the adrenaline and her willpower Hope managed to get through it.  
But now, with the buzz, adrenaline and willpower gone, the muscles in her legs and lower back shut down. Making it very hard for Hope to walk. She still could walk it just felt like she had already ran a marathon , like her legs could give way any second.

Mac cannot believe US soccer let is come this far but he also understood that with everything surrounding the World Cup, Hope's body would have masked it, making it very hard for the trainers to spot.

Hope focuses back at the team in front of her. She hasn't really spend much time with the team but Hope loves them, she loved their support during the World Cup. She loves the organisation and she loves Laura. But she cannot stop to feel like a burden, she takes up a roster spot, the number one jersey, a lot of the attention. And what does she give back?

Before Hope can answer her own question she hears "I didn't expect you to come in today."  
Hope looks to her left, not that she has to look to know Laura is going to be there.

The keeper gets up to hug her coach.  
"I was on my way back home from Mac and decided to jump by, see how things are going."  
The two sit down.  
"You have been following the games so you know we are still on course. But I am, and I am sure the girls are too, looking forward to see you and Pinoe in a Reign jersey again."  
Hope's smile falters "about that."

Laura looks at her star keeper. She knows not to expect the keeper to join them within the week but hearing Hope will not be able to play any of the July games has her a bit worried. Not about the team, the team will manage. But her keeper, she isn't sure how many more 'hits' Hopes body can take before she has to hang up her boots. Or even worse, how many hits Hope's body can take period.

Hope finishes her story. Laura easily picks up on the defeated tone and thinks quickly.  
"I got an idea. I don't know when your appointments with Mac are but what do you say about coming in for training. But instead of doing exercises yourself you could coach Kop en Caroline."

Hope looks in surprise at her coach, sure she has given the two younger goalkeepers some pointers during training, but to really coach them, that's something entirely different, something new, something she has never done before.  
"You don't have have to decide now." Laura adds, seeing the lack of response from Hope.

"I'll do it."Hope says convinced.   
This could be an opportunity to see if it something she wants to do in the future or not.  
The next second a loud "HOOOOOPE" can be heard.  
Fishlock, followed by her teammates make there way up the stands.

Laura looks nods at Hope before making her way down.   
Once back on the pitch the coach looks up and sees the group of players and smiles.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The ESPY's are coming up in the next chapter.  
> I don't know if my internet connection will be able to hold on long enough for me to post the second update. If not, I'll try again at the airport.


	61. Interviews

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Made it to the airport. I'll go over this chapter once I'm home.

Pinoe and Hope are once again on route. This time they are on their way to LA. The team has to be there for the ESPY's. Although the event was not put down as mandatory, not showing up was just not done.

Tobin, who (reportedly) lost her passport and Cheney, who had some family business to take care of,are the only two players that cannot make it.

The organisation put them all up whit individual rooms. Some brought their boyfriend or girlfriend, some decided to room together with teammates anyways and a few used this opportunity to have a room of their own and enjoy the calm.

Hope quickly drops off her bags in her room and goes looking for her girlfriend, Kelley had texted her the number of her room so that is where Hope goes first.

Kelley is talking in her phone when she opens the door. So Hope walks inside and closes the door behind her.

Seeing as Kelley is pacing in front of the window Hope chooses to sit down at the table and get some work done while waiting for Kelley to finish her interview.

  
"What are you doing?" Kelley says while walking up to Hope.  
"Working" the taller woman answers without lifting her attention from the screen.  
Kelley stands behind Hope and leans over her girlfriend to see what kind of work Hope is doing.

Hope quickly pauses the video, not wanting Kelley to see her analysis video. After all she is the opponent.  
"You do know Haley is your teammate?" Kelley asks, knowing Hope had the tendency to study her opponents, not her teammates.  
"I know. But Laura asked me to do some coaching." The keeper turns around on the chair so she can see her girlfriend "It is only temporary, until I can play again."  
Kelley nods her head.

The keeper takes Kelley's hand and leads her around the chair. After some shuffling Kelley manages to sit comfortably on Hope's lap, facing the keeper and Hope can finally greet her girlfriend.

It takes a few seconds but when Hope finally recognises the look in Kelley's eyes, she smiles and silently says "Hi"  
Kelley smiles "Hi"

  
Hope looks at her girlfriend, at the freckles covering her girlfriends' skin and has to fight the urge to kiss them all.

Kelley picks up on the change in her girlfriend's look and it makes her heart rate increase, not much but enough that Kelley is aware of the raise.  
Hope is about to make a comment but Kelley decides they still have plenty of time to talk. Right now she wants to show Hope just how much she misses her.

Kelley leans back after a moment "You don't need to work?"  
Hope reaches behind Kelley and closes her laptop "work can wait."

  
They both jump at the sound of Kelley's phone ringing. The defender leans back and grunts.

Kelley leans back and grunts. She finally has some time alone with Hope and now she had to do another interview.

The keeper straightens Kelley's shirt and taps the defender slightly on her back. Kelley has to hurry to take the call before her phone stops buzzing. She quickly plugs in her headphones and accepts the call.

The keeper gets out of the chair and makes her way to the mini fridge. She takes out a bottle of chocolate milk and walks towards Kelley. She hands her girlfriend the bottle. Kelley takes out her right earbud and covers the microphone. She places a kiss on Hope's cheek before whispering "I love you" hoping the journalist doesn't pick up on the declaration of her love.

She then instructs Hope to take some pictures of her dress and places the earbud back into place.

The keeper takes out her phone and walks to the bed, she makes sure the dresses are lying perfectly.  
She takes a few pictures, proceeds by taking a few pictures of Kelley (and her chocolate milk).

  
The keeper lies down on the couch, her head resting in Kelley's lap.  
She first scrolls through her website, reading some comments. Soon her phone is put away and Hope closes her eyes and just listens to Kelley talking.

The sigh Kelley lets out let's Hope know the interview is over.  
"How was it?" She asks, without opening her eyes.  
"It was all right, the journalist was friendly. Although I don't think I will ever get used to giving interviews."  
Hope smiles "I think that's a good thing. That way it keeps you alert and lost of the time it keeps you from saying things that might come back to bite you in the ass."  
The defender looks at the pictures Hope took, she selects the best ones and sends them to the journalist.  
Kelley put her phone away and looks at her girlfriend. Hope looks relaxed, peaceful. Kelley didn't know how to reply to Hope's last statement. Since she cannot find the words Kelley leans down and kisses her girlfriend, hoping it conveys everything she wants to say.

Given how abrupt things stopped earlier Kelley shouldn't be surprised by how quick things heat up.

"You have to go" Kelley says while trying to usher Hope out of the room.  
The keeper continues placing kisses on Kelley neck.  
"Hope I'm serious you have to go. I need to get ready for the event." Kelley barely manages to say. She so badly wants to give in hut she knows if she do so, they will never make it in time for the red carpet thing.

"You do realise I took pictures of your outfit like 10 minutes ago." The keeper replies.  
"It's not the same." With one final kiss Kelley pushes Hope outside.  
She quickly closes the door but not quickly enough to not see the pout Hope is giving her.

  
The team meets in Syd and Dom's room.  
Kelley cannot help but smile at Hope's reaction upon seeing her girlfriend.  
"Told you it wasn't the same" Kelley whispers in Hope's ear before walking towards Pinoe, who is holding a bottle of champagne even though they were instructed not to start drinking before 6 pm.

Hope unknowingly followed Kelley with her eyes. The moment she realises what she did, the keeper quickly looks away.  
She continues by looking around, hoping nobody noticed what she did. When her gaze lands on Ali Hope knows the defender did notice.

Before Hope could think of a way to explain Ashlyn was already in need of Ali's attention so the keeper quickly made her way to her best friend, hoping Ali would forget about it.

 

  
Hope escorts Kelley to de room. Seeing as they are the only two in the hallway Hope leans down to give Kelley a goodnight kiss.  
The defender takes over control so the kiss lingered longer then Hope intended it to last.

Next moment Kelley had taken out her key card and is about to turn around when she seemingly remembers Hope is still there.  
"Thank you for walking me to my room."  
"It was my pleasure." Hope says with a slight smile.

Kelley turns around and opens her door. She turns back around when she notices Hope hadn't walked away yet.  
"You do know that your room is that way Ms. Solo?" Kelley says while pointing down the hallway.  
Hope looks in the direction Kelley pointed at, not believing that her girlfriend would let her sleep in her own room, and missing the smirk on Kelley's face.  
Hope turns back "I know. It's just, I was hoping to spent the night with my girlfriend."  
Seeing the look on Kelley's face Hope quickly adds "just sleeping"

Kelley,no longer able to hold back the smile, pushes the door further open and pulls Hope inside with her.  
Once inside she places a quick kiss on Hope's cheek before making her way to the bedroom.  
Hope narrows her eyes and comes to a realisation she hurries and catches up with her girlfriend seconds before said girlfriend reaches the bedroom. Hope swings her arms around Kelley "you planned on letting me sleeping with you all along." Kelley just smiles and walks the two of them to the bedroom.

  
Somehow Alex and Servando coincidentally end up at the same place as Kelley and Hope decided to have breakfast.

Servando looks apologetic at Hope. The keeper just smiles, she knows both Kelley and Alex so when the defender told her earlier the forward wanted her to join dinner, which Kelley politely declined, Hope had a pretty solid feeling the would run into the couple anyways.

  
"I thought you and your husband deserved some alone time and since Hope came alone I decided to drag her with me." Kelley offers, seeing the look in Alex's eyes.  
Truth was, she ditched the breakfast with the couple because she was pretty certain Alex was going to hear her out about her relationship with the mystery girl.

"Well since Serv and I are already here, you two don't mind us joining in?"  
"Off course not" Hope says while moving their stuff to make some room for the couple.

  
Alex is quick to decide what she is going to have for breakfast. While waiting for Servando to make his choice Alex and Kelley go into one of their famous stare downs.

Hope shakes her head at the behaviour of the two younger women. She thinks about what she and Servando can talk about. She doesn't really know the guy. She knows he plays for Orlando and she knows he and Alex know each other from back in college.

Normally Hope would talk about soccer (with a soccer player at a non soccer event. They are more than just soccer players) but seeing the choice she has AAA

When the waiter comes to take Alex and Servando's order, Alex and Kelley stop their stare down.

Hope and Servando find out they have a common passion for boats. Only difference, Serv loves motorboats while Hope prefers sailing boats.

 


	62. Jet Fuel

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know some of you guys have been waiting for the team to official find out about Hope's and Kelley's relationship. But before that can happen a few other things have to happen. I'm going to try to get up multiple chapters this week that way it hopefully won't take too much longer before the moment happens.

Last week Hope started training with the team again. Even though she wasn’t yet cleared to play in a game, Hope accompanied the Reign to Boston. She has been training and coaching Caroline and Kop since she came back from the World Cup and Laura thinks the Boston game is a good game to see what Hope can do, as a coach, during a game. At the game Laura was pretty confident the team would find its way to a win so she spent most of the time watching Hope (somehow still being able to encourage the team every time they start slacking). She has always been a fan of Hope’s play but seeing how Hope seemingly read the game so easily, calling plays before they happen, Laura is amazed. The coach notices that not only is this an opportunity for Hope to learn, it is also an opportunity for her to learn.

 

Hope manages to persuade Laura in giving her three days off. It wasn’t an ideal situation, with Hope playing her first game back with the team in just a little over a week but the promise of doing the exercises every day (and a couple Adele tickets) got the job done. Laura decides it is only fair to give the entire team three days off. So after the post-game dinner some players pack their bags and catch their flight, others stay in Boston and will take the plane back to Seattle tomorrow.

 

It’s about 2.15 am by the time Hope arrives at her destination. She thanks the cabdriver, gives him a little extra before shouldering her bag and making her way inside. The keeper puts down her Gucci bag and fumbles with the keys, not finding the right one. Hope lets out a sigh when she finally manages to open the door. She uses her travel bag to push, and hold, the door open while she grabs her Gucci bag.

 

The keeper’s tired mind fails to notice that the amount of shoes standing alongside the wall are way too much to be just Kelley’s. Plus, there are also Nike running shoes and Kelley loves her UA running shoes way too much to switch them for Nike’s. Hope drops her bags at the end of the hallway, wanting to make a quick trip to the kitchen to get a glass of water before joining Kelley in bed.

Her mind might have been half asleep but luckily for Hope, her reflexes are still as sharp as ever. So when two seconds later a baseball bat swings in her direction the keeper manages to catch it, preventing it from hitting her. She does hiss at the impact of the bat.

A second attack stays out because luckily for Hope, she is pretty well known in the soccer world.  
“Hope?” The attacker asks, not sure as to why the USWNT starting goalkeeper is standing at 0220 in their living room. Upon hearing the Australian Accent Hope finally remembers Kelley telling her she invited the two Matildas to stay at her place (she doesn’t remember why).

“What are you doing here? How did you get inside?” Caitlin, who is standing behind Sam with a cleat held up high, asks.  
Hope is at a loss for words so she just holds up her keys.  
Sam senses Caitlin wants to asks many more questions but the ex-Western New York Flash player has spent enough time with Carli to know not to ask any more questions at this moment. So she apologizes to the keeper followed by pushing her fellow Australian out of the room in the direction of their rooms, saying they will talk in the morning. Sam has pushed Caitlin back into her room and is about to walk in her own room when she hears her name. She leans back and looks at Hope, who is holding up the baseball bat.  
“Ow, yeah” she quickly goes to retrieve it, mumbling “thank you” before quickly disappearing.

Hope’s heartrate has slowed down. Glass of water long forgotten, she walks towards Kelley’s room.  
Not surprisingly Kelley is still fast asleep. The keeper, still shocked from her encounter with the two Aussies, doesn’t bother to change out of her travel clothes even though she knows Kelley will reprimand her for making her bed and room smell like jet fuel. She sits down on the bed. Next things she knows she is pinned down against the matrass, forearm pushing against her throat. The keeper lets out a shriek in surprise, not really being able to do anything else.

Kelley recognizes the voice “Hope?”. She lifts her arm and looks at the person she has pinned down.  
“Babe?”  
Hope just lies down, not able to move or speak.  
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you. Are you ok?” Kelley kind of starts freaking out.

_Guess I really have to stop worrying about Kelley living alone in NY, looks like she has got it covered._

“Hope. Babe, can you please say something.”  
Hope’s mind registers the panic in Kelley’s voice.  
“I’m fine. I guess I should have known not to come in here like that after my encounter with Sam and her bat.”  
Hearing Hope saying she is fine gets a smile on Kelley’s face and she lets out a sigh of relieve. _Wait did Hope say Sam and her bat?_

“What do you mean with Sam’s bat?” Kelley asks, not sure if Hope means the animal (might be another Australian thing to keep a bat as pet) or the baseball bat.  
Upon hearing the story, Kelley lifts up Hope’s shirt, to check for any bruising or other forms of damage. There is none.  
“I’m fine” Hope tucks some loose strands of hair behind Kelley’s ear and looks her girlfriend in the eye, waiting for Kelley to calm down.

“Hi” Kelley says, finally looking Hope in the eye.  
“Hello” Hope replies, smiling.  
Kelley leans down to briefly kiss her girlfriend.  
“What are you doing here?” She asks, suddenly remembering Hope is not supposed to be here.  
“It’s late or rather very early. Let’s go to sleep and talk tomorrow.” Hope suggest.

Kelley looks one more time at her girlfriend, still not believing she gets to sleep in Hope’s arms tonight. The defender cuddles into her girlfriend and lets out a sigh in content and closes her eyes.  
Not even a minute later Kelley scrunches her nose and pushes the keeper away. She doesn’t even have to say it, Hope knows, _Jet fuel._

  
The keeper grunts before reluctantly getting out of the bed and making her way to the bathroom. She walks back into the room five minutes later, having brushed her teeth and switched her travel clothes for shorts and a shirt out of Kelley’s closet. Hope was too tired to take a shower but hopes the little bit of soap she put on her skin hoping it will be enough to mask the smell of the jet fuel and for Kelley to let stay.

The keeper gets back into the bed, Kelley half on top of her within seconds. The defender breathes in, this time there is only a small hint of jet fuel and Hope gets to stay in bed.

 

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter is about the following morning. As told before it will take a couple more chapters before the gals get to know but in mean time moments like this one (with less surprises) will find their way in the following chapters.


	63. a toothbrush and a cooking spoon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope this chapter turned out all right. I had written it a couple times before but most of what you write when you're high on morphine and other painkillers should not be published (at least not in my case).

“I really hope you two aren’t naked” Sam says while walking into Kelley’s room without knocking. She had cover her eyes with her left hand, just a precaution.

“In a way we are all naked, just as you are naked in those pants and shirt that you are wearing” Kelley counters.

Hope rolls her eyes, only Kelley would come with a response like this one. The keeper does pull the cover a bit higher, also just a precaution.

 

“God, you two are naked!” Sam whisper shouts, still covering her eyes.

“Why did you just whisper and what are you doing in my room this early in the morning without knocking?” normally Kelley doesn't mind them not knocking, but now that Hope is here with her she does mind.

Sam remembers why she entered the room in the first place “Ma is here.”

“Christie is here, in the apartment?” Kelley asks in disbelieve.

“Yes she is and I have no idea why, you better hurry out before she comes looking for you.”

“Stall her a bit, I'm coming out in a minute.”

 

Sam turns around, uncovers her eyes and walks out of the room, closing the door behind her.

“You do know that you already came out?” Hope asks sleepy.

Kelley has no time for jokes, she wonders why Cap would show up this early at their place. Sure she had noticed the looks her fellow national team player shed them during recovery yesterday, when she and the two Aussies kept more to themselves then usual and then there was the last minute team dinner but still, that doesn't warrant an early morning visit like this.

 

“You need to hide!” Kelley says while getting out of the bed.

“What? Don't be ridiculous Kelley, it is not like Pearcie is going to walk into your room.”

The defender quickly searches for some clothes “As a matter of fact, she might. How long have you known her?”

Hope grunts, she really doesn't want to come out of bed.

Kelley pulls off the covers from Hope “hurry!”

Reluctantly the keeper puts on the clothes Kelley had thrown in her direction, in meantime Kelley searches the room to make sure nothing points at Hope’s presence.

The keeper is still pulling on the sweatshirt Kelley gave her when the defender pushes her in the direction of the balcony.

“I'm not going to hide on the balcony, that's way too cliché.” The keeper says once she realizes where they are going to.

 

Kelley looks around, all places she can think of are cliché hiding places.

The keeper decides to look for a place herself, then she able to pick on that is at least a bit comfortable. She walks into the adjacent bathroom and sits down in the shower.

Kelley looks at her with a raised eyebrow “This isn't way too cliché?”

Before Hope can come up with a reply the couple hears the door from Kelley’s room opening.

The defender quickly grabs her toothbrush and walks out of the bathroom, pretending she’s brushing her teeth.

Sure enough, Christie walks into the room.

“Hi Christie, what’s up?” Kelley asks, still brushing her teeth.

“I just wanted to come by” the veteran looks around before asking “is everything all right?”

Kelley frowns her eyebrows “why are you asking, did I do something wrong?”

The veteran sits down on the corner of the bed and signals Kelley to do the same.

“With the three of you, is everything ok? Two days, during the game you three looked fine but then at yesterday’s recovery you were distant and it seemed like you were in a discussion. Then at yesterday's dinner it looked like the three of you couldn't get out of there fast enough.”

 

Kelley swallows the toothpaste while wondering how much of the truth she should tell. The defender decided to keep it as close to the truth as possible, that way they hopefully wouldn't be caught in a lie.

 

“I’m sorry, it is all my fault. Yesterday my girlfriend showed up out of the blue. Sam and Caitlin didn't even know I have a girlfriend so the moment we were alone, the car ride to practice and the practice itself, they bombarded me with questions, what you saw at training was not me arguing with them it was just me answering some of their questions.”

Kelley realizes she has been swinging around with her toothbrush so she sticks it in her pocket before continuing, “dinner was also my fault. At the time I didn't know how long my girlfriend would be here, I just knew she wasn't going to be here for too long so I had already planned on taking her out before you called. Since I wanted to spent as much time as possible with her I kind rushed us out of dinner last night. I’m sorry that was really unprofessional of me, it won't happen again.”

 

Christie is silent for a moment, thinking about what she is going to say next.

“Why didn't you just say something?”

“And say what? Hey Christie I cannot come to the team dinner tonight, my girlfriend is in town and I rather be with her? That would have been even more unprofessional.”

 “Is she still here?” Christie asks while looking around.

‘No” Kelley says dejectedly, “I dropped her off at the airport earlier this morning. If she had been here longer…” Kelley trails off, not really knowing how to end that sentence “I guess, I would have reacted differently.

 

“Next time, just tell me.”

 

By now Hope really started to regret she took the shower to hide. It wasn't nearly as comfortable as she expected it to be. She just wants to sit down, leaning against the wall, but she keeps sliding away.

The keeper is very pleased to hear the door of Kelley’s room fall shut. She listens for a minute or two, to make sure the coast is clear. Once she is convinced it is safe to move the keeper jumps up, she walks around in the tiny bathroom, thinking what she should do. She cannot stay in here for forever. After having crossed the bathroom for ten more times the keeper remembers the fire escape. One of the other rooms has a fire escape. She could climb that one down and go for a run, hoping Christie will be gone by the time she comes back.

 

Caitlin stands next to Kelley, who is making some coffee.

“I’m sorry, one moment she was there and the next she was gone.”

‘It’s all right, I expected her to pull off something like that. We were prepared.” Kelley whispers back before taking the toothbrush out of her pocket. She lays it next to the sink, grabs the two cups of coffee and walks back to the two others.

Halfway through discussing some of last night’s events Kelley hears her phone ringing. To her surprise the noise comes from the living room. She must have forgotten to take it with her last night.

 

The defender hurries to the sound and finds her phone lying on the couch.

14% battery left, luckily did she recharge it on their way back from Christie’s.

The defender doesn't recognize the number but answers the call anyway

“Hello?”

“Kells it's me, Hope. Listen I don't have long.”

The defender almost asks “Hope, where are you and why are you calling me from an unknown number?” But she remembers in time that there is someone in the room that doesn't know about them.

“Is Christie still there?”

“Yes, definitely.”

“All right, I need you to go to the kitchen, I just remembered I left my phone on the counter.”

 

Kelley quickly looks in the direction of the kitchen. She spots Hope’s phone, it is still in the exact same spot as she described it to be. She watches Christie for a moment, her fellow national team teammate doesn’t look like she just discovered two of her teammates sleeping together.

 

“Where are you?” Kelley whisper asks into the phone.

“I don't know,” keeper looks around “somewhere near a metro station.”

Kelley rolls her eyes, _that narrows it down._

“How did you get out?”

“I used the fire escape” Hope says truthfully, hoping Kelley doesn't know you have to jump eight feet down to make it from the lower step to the street.

Hope can hear Kelley laughing, _guess she doesn't know that fact._

“Babe, I got to go. Love you” with that the call disconnects.

 

Kelley switches her and Hope’s phone, safely tucking the keepers phone away.  
The defender picks up an apple before joining the conversation.

Christie is surprised by this. She hasn’t known the Stanford grad for so long but she does know that it is not common to see Kelley eating an apple as breakfast. She looks around and it is only now that she notices the abundance of flowers in the apartment.

Which is kind of weird seeing their travel schedule.

 

“Erin brought those, she thought it might make this place look a bit more mature.” Kelley says, picking up on the fact that Christie noticed them.  

Sam and Caitlin are surprised by the ease with which Kelley tells the lie.

 

 

Hope drops her bag in the hallway, grabs Kelley’s hand. The defender had just enough time to close the door before she was dragged towards the living room. After Christie had left, Kelley had grabbed both her and Hope’s training bag and joined the keeper at some coffee shop. But not before getting lost several times because apparently her girlfriend isn’t as good in giving directions as she thinks she is. After eating breakfast, for which Kelley paid because the keeper left without taking her wallet with her, the two went to the gym. Hope, to get in the workout she promised Laura, Kelley allegedly because she also needs to work out. Hope knows her girlfriend wants to see what form she is in before playing her first game again.

 

Kelley didn’t like the fact that Hope was coming back from an injury and she wasn’t there to look after her. Off course she had Hope sending her a lot of updates, but it wasn’t the same as seeing with her own eyes how Hope was doing.

 

The keeper lies down on the couch and pulls Kelley next to her.

Hope is asleep within seconds. Kelley realizes that she probably should set an alarm before falling asleep but her phone is still in her bag. She tells herself it won’t be necessary to go get it, she will stay awake. Not even a minute later the defender is also asleep.

 

 

By the time the two wake up it is already late in the afternoon.

The couple takes their time to get off the couch, both savoring every second they are in each other’s arms, knowing that soon they once again will be thousands of miles apart.

In the end it is Hope who suggest they get off the couch, they have to start prepping for dinner.

 

 

Hope has already taken most of the ingredients out of the fridge and is currently going through the notes she took yesterday at the farmers’ market. Kelley lets Sam and Caitlin know dinner is ready at 7 pm.

The two Mathilda’s triple check to see if it is all right for them to join them for dinner, they don’t mind staying at Katy’s place.  The defender looks at her girlfriend who is holding up a half stuffed chicken while frustratingly going over her notes, clearly looking for what she should do next. “I’m not sure you two will be allowed to stay here when you don’t.”  
With that it is settled, Sam and Caitlin will be home a little before 7 pm.

 

 

Kelley puts on some music before rolling up her sleeves and washing her hands.  
The defender picks up a knife and stands next to Hope “What can I do to help?”  
Hope looks at her little girlfriend with the big knife. She places a kiss on Kelley’s cheek “Kelley I love you but there is no way I’m going to let you use that knife.” She takes the sharp knife out of Kelley’s hand and replaces it with a wooden cooking spoon.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There will be quite a big time jump between this chapter and the next one.  
> 


	64. favorite goalkeeper

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is just a short chapter, next one will be much longer.  
> I got the idea for this chapter when I was high on pain meds so I'm not really sure it will be a great one.  
> Luckily I had written out the plot for next chapter before all this happened so that one should be better.

The team just won their second game against Haiti. Jill is in her office, going over the notes she took during the game and from time to time adding something she remembered but didn’t think of writing down during the game. She is about halfway through her notes when she hears a knock on her (open) door. The coach looks up and is not surprised to see her starting goalkeeper standing there. She had suggested (more like ordered) the goalkeeper to come by after each game to just talk.

“Come in, I’m just going to finish this” Jill says before finishing writing down the sentence.  
Unlike other times the keeper closes the door behind her. Jill notices and quickens the process of finishing her notes by using symbols.

The coach closes her book, lays down her pencil and takes off her glasses before motioning Hope to sit down. The keeper sits down for a second or two when she says in typical Hope Solo fashion “I quit”, not beating around the bush.

“What?!” The English woman exclaims, she clearly hadn’t seen this one coming.  
“I quit! I know I said I could, but I cannot...”  
Jill leans back in her chair, momentarily missing what Hope was saying. The head coach never thought she would lose her best goalkeeper over something as irrelevant as loving a teammate.

 

_Flashback to early May 2015_

 

_Jill had been sitting on a bench outside the hotel, enjoying the calmness of the night.  
The team was in its final preparation for the tournament so she had been working extra-long hours to make sure everything is all planned out before they arrive in Canada._

_The head coach isn’t sure how long she had been sitting there when someone else sits down next to her. She looks to her left and is surprised to see her starting goalkeeper.  
Without saying something the keeper shoves an object into Jill’s hands._

_Jill looks down at the object in her hands. It’s a picture of Hope and Kelley, taken on their vacation with Tobin and Claire. The coach looks back at Hope, still not sure why the keeper has given her that picture._

_“I came across this one when I was going through my house before coming into camp. And I realized that you also must have seen it when you came to check up on me.”_  
Jill looks back at the picture, she had indeed seen it before.  
“I did see it.”  
“So you know about Kelley and me?”  
After a short period of silence Jill answers, “Yes I do.”  


_“Why didn’t you say something?”  
“I shouldn’t be the one that had to say it.” Jill looks at her own wedding band before continuing “in the beginning I was going to say something. I had the frame in my hand and planned on hearing you out. But then I put it back down before you came back from making your phone call and after that I didn’t know what to do. It was clear that you two had no intentions on make your relationship public, not even to the team. You two seemed to have something more than just a fling and the both of you seem perfectly capable of separating personal from professional. So as long as it doesn’t affect the team, I don’t see why you two can’t be together.”_

_Hope lets out a breath she didn’t know she was holding. Hearing they either should end this or one of the two of them would have to stay in the States is not something Hope wanted to hear._

_“However if anyone asks, I don’t know of any relationship between the two of you. That also implicates that you cannot come public with your relationship.”_  
Hope nods before answering “That’s all right, we weren’t really planning on coming out any time soon. I just have one condition for you too.”  
The coach looks up, surprised.  
“Kelley cannot know about this. We both didn’t want to come forward with our relationship. I probably will have to tell her at some point but I would like to stay focused on the World Cup, as I would like to keep Kelley focused on that, and I don’t think talking about something that officially didn’t happen is something that will help either of us.”

_End of flashback_

  
  
Noticing she hadn’t been paying attention to what the goalkeeper had been saying Jill refocuses her attention on Hope.  
“I just want to be able to love Kelley the way she deserves to be loved.”  
With that last phrase the keeper looks at her coach and Jill realizes she has to say something. But how do you properly respond to a conversation you weren’t paying attention to for the bigger part?

So the coach says the first thing that comes up in her mind out loud.  
“Can you wait just a little longer?”  
“Why? US Soccer hasn’t changed their mind over this topic over a hundred years. What makes you believe they will now? It’s not like something special recently happened that might change their minds.”  
“Just give me a bit more time I’m working on some things.”  
This clearly got the attention of the goalkeeper.

 _Great Jill that’s the best you could come up with? Now she’ll expect me to be able to fix this._ The head coach could kick herself in that moment.

After a moment of silence, seeing as the head coach isn’t going to collaborate on what she is working on, Hope agrees.  
“I’ll play the rest of the Victory tour games but if nothing has changed. You won’t have to bother with calling me up for January camp.”  
Normally Jill would not let a player, or anyone else for that matter, talk to her like this but the coach gets where Hope comes from. To be honest, she finds the entire situation ridiculous, _it’s 2015 for God’s sake_.  
The head coach nods, that gives her a little over three months to come up with something.  
“I do have two conditions.”  
Jill looks at Hope, curious as to what those two conditions are.

“One, Kelley never gets to know about all this and two, however things go from now on. Two, Kelley will not be punished for it. You and I know she is more than good enough and works harder for it than anyone I know to deserve a call up.”

The coach nods, agreeing to the two conditions.  
The keeper looks the British woman one more time in the eyes, to make sure they are all right.  
Seeing they are, Hope walks out of the room while Jill tries to wrap her head around what just happened.

 

In the hallway, Hope almost literally bumps into Kelley. The defender however had (for once) been paying attention to her surroundings managed to avoid a collision.

“Everything ok?”  
“Why wouldn’t it be?” Hope asks confused.  
“You just walked out of Jill’s office looking like she just told you that from now on you have to play forward instead of goalkeeper.”  
The goalkeeper keeps looking confused for a couple more seconds. She looks back, as if she wants to check she really just came from Jill’s office.  
“Yeah that. Well you know Jill wants me to come see her after games to talk about the game. Mainly she just wants to know how my back and legs are. Make sure I’m taking it easy this time.”

Kelley looks concerned at her keeper “how are you feeling?”  
“I’m feeling ok. I only played forty-five minutes so my body isn’t that tired. No tingling or numbness in my legs so that’s good.”

 

“What about you? Why aren’t you hanging out with the others?” The keeper asks, trying to change the subject.  
“Me? I’m just looking for my favorite goalkeeper.”  
Hope swings her arm around Kelley’s shoulder and leads them away from Jill’s office.  
“Why were you looking for your favorite goalkeeper?”  
“Just a sec” Kelley had spotted someone, “Hi Ash wait up. I have to ask you something.”  
The defender frees herself out of Hope’s grip and jogs towards the blonde keeper.  
Halfway she does look back and winks at her keeper, seeing Hope standing there in disbelief.

Ashlyn and Kelley have long disappeared out of sight when the keeper shakes her head and smirks.  
The keeper goes looking for her best friend. She has a few things to discuss with Carli before the two of them part ways again.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The part where Jill had seen the picture is way back in Chapter 12 when she came to check up on Hope. Even though this particularly part of the story isn't described in chapter 12 (where the story focuses on Jill wondereing who Hope is talking to. The answer to that question is: Kelley)


	65. Championship game

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry for not updating these last couple of weeks.  
> Recovering is way more exhausting than I ever could have imagined and it is not really like I can take a day off. I will be uploading two more chapters within the next hour, to make up for the weeks I didn't update.

Training had been brutal today, but the keeper is still full of energy.  
She has about forty minutes before Kelley comes back home and she still has to take a shower, cook dinner and set the table.  
The defender arrived back home yesterday after spending the week with her parents. Seeing as the last game against Haiti was only a three-hour drive from her parents’ place, Kelley figured it was the moment to spend some time with her parents. Plus, Hope would be busy with training for the championship game so it was a great moment to visit her family. The only thing that could have made it perfect (in Kelley’s opinion) is if Hope could have been there with her. The defender can’t wait to show off her girlfriend to her family (and some old friends).

 

The keeper drops the groceries, she bought on her way back home, on the counter. She quickly empties her training bag, making sure to put her cleats outside. She drops her training gear in front of the washing machine, she will take care of them later. Hope makes her way (she almost runs) to the kitchen, fishes her cellphone out of her Gucci bag. She scrolls through her playlist and eventually settles for her pre-World Cup playlist. The keeper washes her hands and starts with the ‘dirty preparations’. Somehow the keeper always managed to get stains on her clothes during those preparations, hence the ‘dirty preparations’. The keeper even tried doing those preparations with an apron but somehow she still managed to get stains on her clothes. Now she doesn’t even try to not make stains anymore.

 

Once those preparations are done the keeper quickly takes a shower. By the times she buttons her blouse’s last button she has about five of those forty minutes left. The keeper walks down the stairs at the same moment Kelley opens the front door. The keeper is surprised by how fast their temporary family member is in front of her. She squats down to pet the pup.

 

The dog only had been with them for less than a month. Luce had appeared on their doorstep one evening, asking if they could take care of her dog for a while.  
Seeing as it was a shepherd, Hope would have never thought Kelley to be so willing to do so (she didn’t think Kelley was a fan of those kind of dogs).  
And off course Kelley was completely sold when she found out she could name the pup.  
The keeper still couldn’t believe, first that Kelley had named the dog Granola and second that Luce was ok with that.

 

Hope switches her focus to her girlfriend. Kelley had just been standing there, looking at Hope and Gran. The keeper gives the dog one last pet before making her way to Kelley.

“Are we going out tonight?”  
Hope looks confused for a second, that is until Kelley points at her outfit.  
“In these shorts? No, I cooked dinner for us. I just kind of got tired of always wearing Nike.”  


 

“So what’s the occasion?” Kelley, also freshly showered, asks before shoving another bite of chicken into her mouth.  
“No special occasion, I just wanted to cook for you.”

 

During dinner Kelley talks about her time in Georgia, not that Hope hadn’t heard a big part of those stories when they called. But she doesn’t mind. Whenever Kelley is talking about her family she has this sparkle in her eyes and she gets all excited, all Hope can hope is that Kelley acts the same way when she talks about her.

 

After dinner the couple ends up watching the sunset, both half asleep. Kelley, feeling the three-hour time difference between Georgia and here, and Hope, tired from training.

 

“Can’t we just sleep out here?” Kelley wonders out loud.  
Seeing as the sky was cloudless Hope is pretty sure it would be a cold night.  
“If you want to wake up feeling as sore as if you just completed Dawn’s condition week, be my guest.”  
This got Kelley even quicker inside the hose than expected. Which also meant that Hope was the one who had to clean up. Halfway through bringing the plates back inside Hope realizes that this might have been the reason why Kelley took off and not the thought of waking up sore.  


“What took you so long?” Kelley asks when Hope finally makes it into their bedroom.  
_Really?_ __  
Kelley just tries to smile innocently, “Can you hurry? I would like to sleep.”  
The keeper thinks about getting extra slowly ready for bed but seeing she really is exhausted she does hurry.

 

The next week flies by. Hope spent most time with the Reign (trainings, meetings or something totally different).  
Kelley did some training on her own, she went on walks with Granola and hung out with friends.

The morning of the championship game, the couple sleeps in.  
Hope goes into the city to meet up with the rest of her team for breakfast, while Kelley eats breakfast at home.

The defender decides to take it easy today, go for a walk with Gran and apart from that just hang around.

The defender first busies herself with cleaning the house.  
Then she calls up her sister, Erin had thought about flying in to see Hope play but it was too busy at work for her to be able to take a few days off. After the call with her sister Kelley plans on going for a run with Granola. She is surprised to see Tobin’s face appear on her phone   
  
“TOBIN” the defender exclaims excitingly “How is Paris?”  
The defender forgets all about the walk.  
Granola, however, did not and it doesn’t take too long before the pup starts running circles around Kelley, hoping to get her attention.  
So the defender moves to the outside and lets Granola swim, under her supervision off course.  
It is great to catch up with Tobin. But seeing she has a couple more things to do the defender has to cut the phone call short.

 

Kelley arrives at the stadium and drives the car towards the players’ parking.  
Carl, the parking security guy, is surprised to see the Ex-Reign player driving onto the parking. After having parked the car Kelley walks back to make a short talk with the old man.   
Carl doesn’t comment on the fact that Kelley drove Hope’s car but the smile on his face remains there long after Kelley has left.   
What He didn’t even know is that she previously had dropped both Hope’s mom and grandmother off in front of the stadium.

 

Kelley, all decked out in Reign gear, makes her way into the stadium. She first goes to say hi to Jess. After spending some time with the girl and promising she and Hope will come visit her Kelley makes her way to Kate and some other friends.  


Ten minutes, that is all the time Kelley didn’t feel nervous or anxious. After those first ten minutes of the game Hope has to make her first save of the game. From then on Kelley sits on the tip of her chair.

 

Arod scores late in the game. Kelley looks at the scoreboard ones the game is back underway, the clock shows they have been playing for eighty minutes.

 

Not even a minute later, Cheney sits down on the pitch. Becky is with her before she has even time to roll onto her back. It takes the midfielder a while to remember she should raise her arms above her head, so she can breathe in more air.

 

Seeing as it is Cheney who is on the ground and she didn’t collide with anyone Arod runs back.

 

Arod points to her heart, that is enough for Vlatko to send a medic onto the pitch. They all know about the heart condition Cheney has, the one she was operated on when she was just a child. Neither know about her newer condition, one that probably could have been prevented if only she had the surgery at an earlier age.  

 

Kelley is up on her feet within seconds after Cheney went down. The defender is not really in a good spot to see what is going on so she looks at Hope, maybe her girlfriend noticed something earlier. But Hope seemed even more surprised (and concerned) as Kelley did. The Sky Blue player had to restrain herself from running onto the pitch. It is not that she could have helped in anyway so the defender decides it is best to leave it to the medics to check up on Cheney.

 

Meanwhile, the first medic is next to Cheney.   
“Just focus on your breathing. Forget about all the rest”  
Cheney opens her eyes in surprise.   
“Like I said forget about everything else just concentrate on your breathing” the medic repeats, silencing the midfielder before she even got the chance to speak up.  
Cheney relaxes and follows the breathing of the woman next to her.  
Another medic is send onto the pitch and the volunteers carrying the stretcher also have made their way onto the pitch. Even Vlatko makes it onto the pitch, but soon he is send back to his box.

 

The referee tells them to get moving, “Just one second” the medic replies.  
The woman refocuses on Cheney “Do you think you can get up?”  
Feeling already a little bit better the midfielder nods.  
“Ok, but very slowly. We are in no rush, don’t listen to the referee or your teammates, just focus on your breathing.”  
The midfielder stands up, very slowly. The world is still spinning but way less than it was just minutes ago.  


Cheney looks at the bottle that she has been handed.   
“There is nothing illegal in it. I used exactly the same during the World Cup.” She says when she notices the midfielder doubting if she should drink it or not.  
Cheney isn’t really looking forward to take something she doesn't know, she doesn't want to end up in the drugs list. But then again, you have to live to make it on that list.    
The midfielder downs the bottle.

 

Only now the woman asks the other medic to help her accompanying Cheney to the sideline.  
With the help of the two medics Cheney walks, clearly shaken up, to the sideline. Making sure she stands with her back to the cameras (and thus blocking Cheney from the view of the camera) the medic smears some kind of oily cream on the midfielder’s shirt.

 

“Whenever you feel lightheaded or feel like your heart is going in overdrive just breathe in some of the scents of the cream.”  
All had to go so fast, Cheney doesn’t have time to ask questions.

 

So a couple seconds later the midfielder runs back onto the pitch.  
The midfielder is surprised. Whatever Luce gave her, it worked.  
Seeing an opportunity Cheney sprints towards the Reign’ box, surprising not only the Reign and the fans but also her teammates.

 

Kelley finally thought she could breathe again but seeing Cheney running towards Hope made her hold her breath. FCKC scoring a second goal would be fatal for the Reign. Luckily the ball rolls out of bounce before the midfielder can get to it.

 

The Reign are running out of time. If the situation would have been different Kelley might have called Hope a show off. Referring to Hope going all the way to the FCKC box to participate in the corner kick. Time is not on their side and before the Reign can score the equalizer the end whistle is already blown.

 

Kelley knows Hope is disappointed, her jaw clench, her shoulders that move just a bit more rigid than usual. It pained Kelley to see her like this and it pained her even more knowing that in this moment she would not be able to be there for Hope. At least not in the way she would want to be there for her girlfriend. So instead the defender, as many other Reigns fans, remained seated.

 

Kelley isn’t sure how to act. She has never been in a situation like this one with Hope. She, along with the other players’ families are the last one in the stadium. The defender has had short talks with a lot of them. But now Kelley is all alone, she has looked around, hoping to spot Luce. But the younger woman seemed to have disappeared.

 

Kelley is hurt, she didn’t expect Hope to send her a “see you at home” text.  
The defender contemplates feigning she didn’t see the text. But in the end she does make her way to her car, without waiting for Hope. She gets another text message, Kelley is eager to read it, hoping it would be her girlfriend saying that she was wrong and that she will be out soon but it was her sister.  
However Kelley is spotted by a few of her ex-teammates and the defender forgets all about the text.

 

 

Hope arrives home not too long after Kelley did. The keeper however does come home to a silent house. She calls out for Kelley a few times but no answer. Before she can completely stress out the keeper finds a note.

 

She thinks about just waiting for Kelley to come back from her walk with Granola. But thinking about this whole situation made her realize it was a dick move from her to send Kelley home alone after the game, without even acknowledging her at the game. So the keeper picks up her jacket and closes the door behind her, hoping she knows what route Kelley has taken.

 

Eventually the keeper hears that she has chosen the right one. She continues walking until she can see both Kelley and Gran. Hope stops walking and just stands there, watching her girlfriend and their dog goof around.

She should have known it only would be a matter of time before Granola noticed her. The pup is focused on her within seconds. Before she can tell her to stay with Kelley, the pup is already sprinting in her direction and thus giving away Hope’s presence to Kelley.

 

Hope squads down to greet the pup. The keeper looks back up after a while, realizing she has completely forgotten Kelley. The keeper throws a stick as far away as she can, hoping it will buy her some time to talk to Kelley before Granola comes back, claiming all their attention.

“Hi” the keeper knows it is a lame thing to say but she really has no idea what else to say.  
“Hi”   
Seeing as this is all Kelley replies Hope tries the “I’m sorry” card, hoping it will get more of a reaction out of her girlfriend.  
“For what? For ignoring me after the game or for sending me home by texting me you would see me at home?”

“For both, I … because I wanted to have you in a way that was not possible. So I thought it would be best if I saw you at home. I’m sorry, I should have at least acknowledged you at the game or given you an explanation as to why I only wanted to see you at home.”

“God Hope, I just wanted to be there for you.”

“I know but we can’t, at least not yet.”  
Kelley looks her girlfriend in the eye, sensing that there is something Hope isn’t telling her. On one side it angers her to realize Hope is once again keeping secrets from her but there is something the way Hope said it that makes her wishing she doesn’t get to know about it.  
So instead of asking, the defender just hugs her girlfriend.

 

Granola must have sensed that her two humans wanted some time for themselves. So the pup just walks around, exploring the area while keeping an eye on Hope and Kelley. She had to be sure she was still allowed to walk around and most importantly she had to be sure they were safe.

 

“How are you feeling?”  
“I’m fine. I was just a game. It is not like I have never lost before.”  
  
“It was not just a game Hope, it was the championship game. It is ok to be upset. You have been training so hard to get to the championship game and I know how much you were looking forward to win it with the Reign, you can’t just tell me you are fine.”

Hope pulls her girlfriend in another hug.   
“I’m upset we lost but knowing I get to wake up next to you every morning for the next three weeks makes me feel so happy.”  
Kelley smirks but cannot immediately come up with something to make fun of her girlfriend’s sappy statement.

 

The two walk hand in hand and Granola next to them back to their home.


	66. Temporary roommate

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So second of the three updates.

Hope and Kelley are awoken by the constant ringing of the bell.  
Kelley suggest to just ignore it, but unlike the defender Hope can’t just ignore the constant ringing.  
The keeper gently pushes Kelley off her and gets out of bed. Kelley throws in a last “Babe, they’ll go away” but the keeper seems adamant to give the person, who is ringing the bell, a piece of her mind. Hope quickly throws on a sweatshirt and some shorts before marching out of the room.  
_Oh ow,_ if Kelley had been more awake she would have followed the keeper, just to see the reaction of that pour guy.

 

The keeper opens the door and is very surprised to see Cheney standing in front of her.  
“I brought breakfast” the midfielder says while brushing passed Hope.  
Once she has overcome the initial shock, the keeper looks outside to check if Cheney brought her husband with her but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Hope closes the door, turns back around and goes looking for the midfielder.

 

Hope finds Cheney in the kitchen “It’s 8 am, shouldn’t you be lying in bed with your husband?”  
Cheney continues opening and closing different cabinet doors, clearly searching for something.  
“Jrue is perfectly capable of surviving a couple hours without me by his side” Cheney replies while opening yet another cabinet.  
“What are you looking for?” The keeper asks a bit annoyed.  
“Found it!” Cheney exclaims while holding up a mug she had ever given to Hope.

 

“KELLEY, COFFEE IS READY!”  
“Wow this would have been so awkward if Kelley and I had broken up. Especially if another person would have been lying in my bed right now.” Hope remarks and eagerly reaches for the cup of coffee that Cheney is handing her.

 

“Kelley and you breaking up? It is more likely for the men’s team to win a World Cup then for you two to break up.”  
Hope smiles, it feels great to hear one of their close friends say that she believes they are ‘it’ for each other.

The keeper is still supporting a goofy smile by the time Kelley walks into the kitchen.  
Kelley quickly kisses Hope on the cheek before enthusiastically greeting the midfielder.    
“What are you doing here so early?”   
“I came by to see my favorite couple”  
Kelley laughs “well thank you. So where is that lovely husband of yours?”  


 

The trio is halfway through their breakfast when Kelley remembers something, “you are so lucky that Gran didn’t kill you. It honestly surprised me.”  


_Granola_ , Hope suddenly realizes she hasn’t seen or heard the pup yet. That can only mean one thing,  
The keeper pushes her stool away and runs towards the front door, leaving Kelley and Cheney confused behind.  
The two are too curious to wait for Hope to come back and tell them what is going on so instead the two also make their way outside. They are just in time to see Hope disappearing into the garage.  


Kelley looks inside the garage, she knew Luce stayed her for a while. It was not really a place where she had to be every day so didn’t go back to check if Luce had taken all of her stuff with her when she left, she just assumed it. Judging by the stuff that is in the room Kelley is pretty sure that was not the case.   
While the defender looks kind of pissed, Cheney looks excited. She knew this was the place to come to find Luce.

“why did you not mention that she’s back?”  
“Forgive me for forgetting but I had other, more important, things on my mind yesterday evening. Plus she isn’t back. It is just for two days.” Hope answers, rather defensive.

 

Cheney, sensing this is not a conversation she should be part of, comes up with a lame excuse and hurries outside. She looks around, hoping to find a clue on where Luce might have taken Granola for a walk. The clue comes in form of the sound of someone jumping into Hope’s pool.

 

“Is she going to take Granola with her?” Kelley asks with a pout, suddenly realizing Luce being here has bigger consequences than first assumed.  
“I don’t know. She probably will, but with us being away next month that might not be such a bad thing.”  


 

The two walk back into the house, surprised to not see Cheney. Seeing as Cheney’s purse is still lying on the counter, the couple knows the midfielder is somewhere around.  
It doesn’t take long to locate the missing midfielder. Hope calls over Kelley.   
  
The couple watches the two, who seem to be in a serious conversation, for a while before moving to the couch. Kelley cuddles into Hope, the keeper wraps her arms around Kelley and closes her eyes.   
“Did you get a chance to talk to Cheney after the game?”   
“I did briefly talk to her. But with all the people surrounding us I didn’t really had a chance to ask about it.”  
“But judging by how fast she sprinted once back onto the pitch I think it was a one-time thing” Hope adds after a moment.

 

Hope and Kelley almost had fallen asleep but hearing the two women walk back into the house, they get out of the couch.  
“Do you stay for breakfast?”  
Luce quickly checks her watch “I would love to but I have some business to take care of. Can I borrow your car for a couple of hours?”  
“Off course, I just have to go meet the team at 1”  
“I’ll make sure I’ll be back before 1” Luce replies while grabbing the keys and walks out of the room. But not before, with a single hand gesture, commanding Granola to stay.

  
During the rest of breakfast, the trio mostly discuss their plans for the next month. After Breakfast Hope somehow ended up doing the dishes while the other two sneaked off to the living room.  
Kelley decides that there wouldn’t come a better moment for her to ask about Cheney’s health.  


“How are you?”  
Lauren knows what Kelley is asking for specifically.  
“I’m fine now. I guess the excitement of the game just got to me.”  
“Chen, you played in a World Cup final a little over a 2 months ago and you were fine. You are not going to tell me you were less excited for that game then you were for this one.”  
Cheney absentmindedly pets the pup. To the others saying she just felt like she couldn’t regulate her heartbeat is enough, everyone knows that she has a heart condition. But not with Kelley. Kelley knows something bigger is up.

“I honestly don’t know what happened. I was fine and all of a sudden I was not. My vision became blurry, I was seeing more black spots than anything else, I didn’t know what way was up anymore, it felt like I was not breathing in any air...” Cheney trails off, her mind getting lost in the memory.

  
Noticing the midfielder gets lost in yesterday’s memory Kelley tries to change the subject, well not entirely.

“I didn’t know Luce was a medic with FCKC”  
“She isn’t. I don’t know how in hell she managed to be there.”  
The defender really doesn’t like all the questions and mystery surrounding that woman and she decides that she is going to take care of it.

Hope calls out that she is going to take Granola for a walk, Cheney and Kelley quickly pick up their stuff so they can accompany the keeper.

 

 

 

Hope drops Cheney off on her way to the last Reign recovery session of the season.  
After having talked herself into and out of talking to Luce for the last ten minutes the defender finally has made up her mind. Kelley knocks hesitantly on the garage door. A minute later Luce, who clearly just woke up, opens the door.  
“Oh shit. I didn’t know you were sleeping. Sorry. I’ll come back another time.”  
“No it’s fine, I’m awake now.”  
Kelley stops walking away and turns back around, “I was wondering if you would like to join me and Gran on a walk.”  
“I would love to. Just give a minute to change.” Luce answers, feeling that Kelley deserves some answers.

 

 

 

The walk with Luce went better than expected. Kelley wouldn’t have expected her to be so talkative. Even though she got a lot of answers and has a feeling she knows Luce a bit better, it still feels like the woman is one big mystery. She started to see why Hope would walk through fire for the younger woman.

  
It wasn’t pleasant to hear there is not much she can do to help Cheney. It was even worse to hear that Cheney’s condition isn’t going to get better. Off course Kelley already knew this, she had done enough research to know that in Lauren’s case there is no getting better, only staying the same or getting worse. But hey a girl can hope. Maybe they have found a cure by the time Cheney’s situation has become really bad.

One of the biggest questions that still remains a question is if Luce is CIA. Kelley didn’t have the courage to ask her.

 

Saying goodbye to Granola wasn’t easy but the prospect of spending the next month with Hope, doing whatever they want to do and going

 

 

 

 


	67. Tell me again

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is Hope starting the last steps of her recovery.
> 
> 3/3 updates for today

Kelley knows how proud Hope is of playing with the national team in the city she has called her home for so many years, she can feel and see it.  
The keeper has been buying tickets for family, friends even for completely strangers.

 

So when one of the Brazilian get a shot passed Hope, Kelley feels her heart break.   
From that moment on she doesn’t give a 150% like she had been given, she gives 200%. She is not going to allow Hope to lose in her hometown, she is not going to allows this game to be the one that breaks the USWNT home winning-tie strike.

By the time the fourth official holds up the substitution board with a red five on it the score is still 0-1.

Kelley knows she should be grateful to have been given so many minutes on the pitch, especially with her ankle still recovering but she can’t help but be disappointed. Knowing that Jill also wants to give some of the young newbies their first cap, to see which ones make a shot to be on the Olympic roster, makes it a bit easier to leave the pitch.

The defender sits down and wonders where the strong backline was from the world cup. The Brazilians seemed to have no problem getting behind their backline. Similar to the Belgium game Hope had a lot of work to do. This time with them not having scored, the one ball Hope wasn’t able to save might be fatal. This might be the game that ends their no loss streak. But before Kelley can lose all hope, Carli is there to keep the streak alive. The midfielder manages to connect with a ball Kling sends into the box, after a phenomenal run to the end line.

1-1 Is also the score on the scoreboard by the time the end whistle sounds, minutes later.

 

Prior to the start of the game Hope agreed on giving a little post-game speech. Given the fact Hope is voted player of the match Aaron decides to combine that speech with a little interview.

So after Hope has thanked all the fans to come out today, and thanked them for their support during the world cup tournament, Aaron asks some questions.

She had the mic in her hand and looked around, they first asked her some questions about the game, about the team.  
Then Aaron asked about her come back.  
If looks could kill, I’m not sure Aaron would still be alive.   
She had dodged most of this questions in the past but this time she decided to talk about it.  
The keeper tilts her head as if she is thinking how to answer the question. “If It hadn’t been for a person, I wouldn’t be here today. I would still be sitting in my wheelchair.”  
This surprised not only the interviewer or the crowd but also her teammates, they stopped doing what they were doing and gave Hope their full attention.  
Hope continued “I’m not someone to ask for help. I always thought that it was a sign of weakness. But I learned that it takes a strong person to ask for help.”  
She then turned towards Kelley “She didn’t let herself get scared away when I was frustrated nothing would work. She believed in me at times I stopped believing in myself. She refused to let me give up on myself and she not only pushed me every single day to get out of that wheelchair, she also made me fall in love with her.”  
By now she had really everyone’s attention,  
“She is the reason I’m standing here today and for that, I want to thank you Kelley.”

The team turns surprised at Kelley, who seem to be frozen. The defender did not expect this. Now that she thinks about it Hope might have been hinting about finally going public with their relationship but she never expected the goalkeeper to declare her love for twenty-thousand plus people in the stadium, add to that number all the people who are watching the game on tv. No, she never would have thought her girlfriend to pull off something like this. Slowly she is coming back to reality and Hope is just standing there like the dork she is, smiling.

Jill had been listening to it all with a smile on her face. Dawn leans a bit more towards the head coach so the others will not here what she is about to say next.  
“Tell me again that you don’t have a week spot for Hope Solo.”  
The coach just smiles, knowing there is no way she can deny this while sounding confident.

  
All Kelley can do is mouth a thank you. The defender is pretty grateful at Tobin for dragging her away from their teammates towards the stands, to sign some posters. In meantime Hope thanks the crowd one last time before handing Aaron the microphone and walking towards the bench.

  
From the corner of her eye Hope spots Jill walking towards her.  
“Congrats”  
“thanks”  
“I must say, I didn’t expect you to do it like this.”  
Hope smiles, still on an adrenaline rush “I didn’t plan on doing it at a USWNT event but when Aaron asked about my comeback I wanted to give Kelley the credit she deserved and well I just went it from there.”  
“It’s all right. But you do know it, during working hours I expect you two to act as two professionals.”  
“Off course, we wouldn’t want to have it any other way. After all we still have a job to do.”  
Jill nods, “congratulations once again. You found a good one” with that the head coach hands Hope a sharpie and walks away.   
Hope looks at her girlfriend, who is standing near the stands, signing a bunch of stuff and most probably dealing with tons of questions.

  
The coach goes looking for one of her staff members she has finally found the reason she needs to be able to fire him.

 

The keeper takes out a new pair of gloves and signs them before also making her way to the stands. While signing she, off course, gets a lot off comments about her and Kelley. Hope just smiles most of the time, not wanting to give away any more private information but from time to time she does give a real reply. She gives her gloves away and listens to some more stories while signing as many jerseys, shirts, signs as possible. The keeper stays longer as usual, feeling a bit obliged to get to see as many people as she can, not that she minds listening people saying how good she is, or how they love her.   


Kelley is smart enough to wait for Hope to enter the locker room. There is no way she is going to weather the storm of questions her teammates are going to ask, the second she walks into the locker room, on her own. Tobin, being a good friend, also stay back.   


Eventually Hope, Kelley and Tobin do wave a final goodbye to the people that are still in the stadium, the pass by the bench to get their stuff before walking into the tunnel.

The gals know damn well to make not that big off a deal of it with the training staff around. So Hope and Kelley get a free pass in the locker room.

 

 


	68. bets and whisky

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry for once again taking so long to update this story!!  
> Life just was a bit hectic, exhausting and writing wasn't that much of a priority. But now I finally got my mind (and imagination) working again and writing will become more of a priority so that I can finally finish this story.

Kelley wished they talked this trough in the short period of time they had before meeting with the rest of the team. Hope’s comeback is a big part of their story but she knows that as long as the keeper hasn’t publically talked about it. It is not her story to tell. So the defender tries her best to leave those details as much as possible out of her answers. Which appeared to be less difficult than expected with them all asking questions at the same time, Kelley kind of gets to choose the ones she answers.

Hope is content with letting Kelley handle the questions. She settles for just adding a comment from time to time. This does mean that it is Kelley’s side of the story that is being told. The keeper watches their teammates, tries to get a read out of them. She doesn’t need any validation from them but it is nice to know that the people she spends so much time with, the people she regards as her friends, that those people are accepting and positive of the relationship.

“How long are you two dating?” Pinoe asks, hoping she still makes a chance on collecting on at least one bet. Kelley had to count in her head “I don’t know exactly, somewhere over a year.” She just doesn’t think it is that important. For her just getting having Hope as her girlfriend is way more important than any date ever will be.  
“Over a year and you two didn’t tell us anything?”  
Tobin is holding her hand out, ready to collect. Pinoe, as the other do, grunt and reluctantly once again takes out her wallet.

   
“You guys didn’t notice? They were so obvious” Carli says.  
Hope glares at the midfielder.  
“you knew?”  
The keeper tries to silence her best friend. To her surprise it is not Carli but Tobin who speaks up next,  
“Why do you think Kelley was wearing her shirts inside out on trainings with the Reign?”  
Pinoe and Syd are the only ones who know what Tobin was talking about. But neither know the answer to that question.  
Kelley quickly puts her hand on Tobin’s mouth, effectively preventing the midfielder from speaking up.

 

Hope watches her girlfriend dragging Tobin out of the room. Turning back to the rest of the group Hope realizes everyone is looking at her, expecting to give some kind of explanation.  
“I better go save Tobin” while she points in the direction Tobin and Kelley were last seen. The keeper jogs out of the room without saying another word.  
With Tobin, Kelley and Hope gone the group now look at Carli, who puts up her hands “I’m not telling you anything”  
“Come on Carli!”  
“No, I’m not saying anything” Carli says.  
“Then we will just come up with some stuff…”  
Knowing Pinoe’s imagination, Carli figures it is better to leave the room as fast as possible.

 

The keeper finds Kelley and Tobin in the hallway, laughing. She looks questioning at the duo.  
“Anyways, I have to go make a phone call see you two in the morning.”                
“Thanks for getting us out of there”  
“You’re welcome.” The midfielder turns to the keeper “Goodnight Hope”  
“Goodnight” a dumfounded Hope answers.  
Seeing the expression on Hope’s face Kelley makes her way with a smile on a face to Hope.

“You guys set this … the running off… up? You knew she was going to do that?”  
“No, she just said that if I wanted to get out of there that she got us covered.” Kelley leans closer to Hope before adding “I had no idea that she would bring up the shirt thing.”  
Hope smiles, after all that incident is pretty innocent.

 

Not much later, the couple reaches the door to Kelley’s room.  
The defender opens the door and walks into the room. Sensing her girlfriend isn’t following she turns back around.  
“You coming?”  
The goalkeeper shakes her head “I don’t think it is a good idea for us to be in your room right now. I guarantee you Pinoe and probably some others will come barging in in a few minutes. Last thing I want to happen is them, not being able to shut up about it and the staff hearing it.”

 

“You’re right” Kelley doesn’t like it but she knows Hope is right. If the coaching staff would find out, they could kiss their national team career goodbye. And more importantly they could potentially ruin it for future couples on the team who also want to be publically together while playing on the team.

 

But nothing is going to keep Hope from hugging her girlfriend. The keeper barely picks up on the muffled “it still sucks”, she just bends down a bit and places a kiss on Kelley’s cheek. Hope lets Kelley go and takes a step back.

The defender however isn’t satisfied with just a quick kiss on the cheek so after having checked the hallway is clear, she pulls Hope back and gives her girlfriend a proper goodnight kiss.  
The next second Hope finds herself standing in the hallway, facing a closed door.  
She even didn’t get to say “goodnight” or “I love you”.

 

Seeing as the rest of the team could walk out onto the hallway any second now the keeper decides to go to her room, her goofy smile still present.

 

Hearing the door open, Hope looks up from her book and into the direction of the door.  
Crystal appears into her line of vision seconds later. Seeing she jumped (and almost dropped her phone) upon noticing she wasn’t the only person in the room, Crystal clearly didn’t expect Hope to be there.  
The keeper looks at the younger player with an amused smile and a quirked eyebrow.

  
“I didn’t expect you to be here” Crystal offers, feeling like Hope was waiting for some kind of explanation for her reaction.  
“It is almost midnight, where else would I be?”  
Crystal contemplated to lie for a second but she isn’t really looking forward to get caught lying by Hope so she just spills the truth, “I thought you would be with Kelley.”

 

Hope closes her book, making sure her bookmark is in place, “it is not because you guys (officially) know about me and Kelley that we are constantly going to be on top of each other. At the end of the day this, the national team, is our job so as long as we are at camps or whatever kind of NT commitment we are not Hope and Kelley or Kelley and Hope. We are Hope Solo goalkeeper, Kelley O’Hara defender. Nothing is going to change.”  
  
“Well except for the fact that you are even going to stare even more at Kelley because now you don’t have to do it whenever you think we won’t notice.”  
The forward surprises not only Hope but also herself with this reply. She quickly smiles and even quicker makes her way to the bathroom to get changed into her pjs.

The keeper isn’t angry or grumpy because of the remark Crystal made. She is just shocked that apparently her subtle is not as subtle as she thought. Hope smiles before once again opening her book and continuing to read. Or at least pretending to read, a million questions are flying around in her mind right now. It takes Crystal way longer than usual to finish changing, not that Hope had been counting the minutes passing by.

 

When the forward does come back out of the room she comes out, dancing. The keeper smiles, wondering if there will ever be a moment when Crystal is too tired to dance. She figures not.  
Hope spots Crystal shedding a quick look at her, probably trying to figure out if she is (still) angry or not.  
Seeing as Crystal relaxes, Hope figures she herself must look not angry.

 

The spirit player busies herself with typing away on her phone but Hope can tell she is dying to ask some questions.  
For the second time that evening Hope takes her bookmark and closes her book.  
She makes sure she sits comfortably before asking “What is it that you want to know?”

 

  

A few levels up, “I really need to stop betting against you and I certainly need to stop using my favorite whisky as stake” Jill says while pouring Dawn a glass of said whisky.  
The fitness coach smiles. Seeing as how she won all but one, she doesn’t mind accepting bets with the head coach.

 

Both women savor their first sip of the alcohol in silence. It is Jill who speaks up first “how is O’Hara’s ankle?” Usually they had a no talk about work rule for moments like this but Jill really wants to know if she has to go over her notes again to replace O’Hara.  
“It’s just fine. She has been taking very good care of it so I don’t expect any problems there.”  
“Oh so you basically just kidnapped her so the girls weren’t able to grill her on her relationship with Hope?”  
“After you handing Hope a free pass for that one by letting her bring her mother and grandmother home, I figured Kelley also deserved one.”  
“ok, touché” Jill takes another sip before leaning back and asking the fitness coach about her plans after the second brazil game.

 

 

Kelley is on the phone with her sister when Pinoe and a few other teammates barge into the room. The defender spots an apologetic looking Ali in the back of the group.  
“Hold on for a second Erin” the defender mutes the conversation with her sister before turning her attention back to the women standing in front of her, “can I help you guys with something?”  
Ali decides to step in before they any of the others would veer off subject “No, they actually just wanted to say goodnight.”

 

Seconds later the veteran defender has cleared everyone out of their room.  
Ali lets Kelley finish her phone call and makes her way to the bathroom to change for the night.  
Since it is already well past midnight Kelley cuts the conversation with her sister short, promising they would see each other soon.

 

Ali sits down on her bed, leaning against the headboard with her legs underneath the covers. She briefly types on her phone before putting it away and turning to Kelley saying

“So, you and Hope…”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter kind of continues where this one stopped.


	69. Adding the starbucks story would have made it awesome

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know if anyone is still reading this story.  
> But if so, I want to apologize for taking so long to upload the next chapter. I know this one is long overdue.  
> Thank you, for still being interested in this story!  
> Thing is, I went through some stuff myself, I was mentally not in the best place to write.  
> This is the first piece I have written in a long time so I might be a bit rusty.
> 
> I don't know when the next chapter is going to be uploaded but I can promise you (for real this time) that it will be up before the end of the year. Seeing how it took me almost 6 months (can't believe it is already that long ago since I last posted) to finish this story, 19 days is not long at all. 
> 
> This chapter is a bit different from the previous ones but I felt it was something that was important to the story and needed to be mentioned.
> 
> WARNING: there is a mention of suicide/ suicidal thoughts in part of this chapter.  
> ADVICE: If this is not something you are comfortable with, or something you do not want to read you might want to skip this chapter.  
> Thanks for coming by and I would want to welcome you back for the next chapter.
> 
> DISCLAIMER: I did not put in this part to add to the drama. But because I feel like when going through a situation like that one might start to doubt why they are still here on earth. I also don't know nor do I want to pretend knowing how it feels to come back from being paralyzed. I do know however how it is to all of a sudden not be able to get out of bed, or to pick up something as stupid as a bottle of water.  
> The part in question is just how I experienced it all.

There are only two kind of people that would wake up early the morning after playing a late-night game. Right now, Kelley isn’t one of those two but, much to her dismay, she finds herself out of bed before 8 am. Hope had texted her last night if she could come by in the morning. It sounded rather important so Kelley had set three alarms, just to be certain.

 

That’s how Kelley, still half asleep, finds herself knocking on Hope and Crystal’s door. It doesn’t take long before Hope, who looks like she has been awake for at least an hour, opens the door.

After greeting her girlfriend Kelley takes a step back and looks at Hope, “everything all right?”  
She might be half asleep but she could still see that her girlfriend looked way too nervous for everything to be ok. The keeper gently tugs on Kelley’s arm, motioning her to come inside.  
Once Kelley has stepped into the room and closed the door behind her, she looks up expectantly at the keeper. “You know how I went to New York a while back to give an interview?”  
“Yeah” to be honest, Kelley had already forgotten about it.  
  
“Well they are going to broadcast part of the interview in …” the keeper checks her phone “in two minutes.”

 

Kelley and Hope are both sitting on the keeper’s bed. Crystal, who wants to prove she belongs on the Olympic roster, is already up and out of the room, training.  
Kelley is leaning with her back against the keeper’s front. She doesn’t really know what to expect. On the day of the interview, the keeper had asked her not to come along. Hope wasn’t sure she would be able to tell the story, the way she wants to tell it, with Kelley by her side. She wasn’t sure she would have found the strength to talk about some part of her recovery when seeing Kelley’s shocked face. Maybe she should have discussed it with Kelley before telling it to the world. It is just that Hope feels like somehow it would disappoint the defender,  
Kelley grabs the keeper’s hands with her own and swings them around her waist. She is ready to see the interview.

 

Meanwhile behind her, Hope is nervous. She shouldn’t be. She has seen the final cut so she knows what will come. Except, she is nervous. Because this time, the interview will be broadcasted all over America and the keeper knows damn well that with screenshots, GIFs and whatever it is that people do on the internet, her interview will forever be around. For a moment, she has to resist the urge to call the producers and tell them to cancel, not that they would have been able to do so, not this close to the broadcast.

 

Kelley missed almost the entire opening fragment, where they introduced Hope and briefly mentioned THE incident. The defender is grateful for them not showing the footage. She remembers watching the game with some friends and to sum it up, Kelley would be perfectly fine if she never saw the video of those couple minutes ever again for the rest of her life.

 

“How was it to play in the World Cup and win a golden medal? After the game against Canada a while back, did you expect to be part of the team that would bring the trophy back home?  
  
“To be honest, it was not a World Cup I expected to be part of. So, for me to be able to stand there and help the team win a golden medal two years after I was told chances of me walking again weren’t big, it was just surreal. The tournament did come a bit early but as a goalkeeper you can kind of ‘cheat’ on some of the physical aspect.”

The last part of Hope’s answer was clearly not something that the interviewer expected to hear.  
“Wait, hold on. You were not yet fully recovered when you made those incredible saves against Australia?”  
Hope smiles at the compliment “I was not. I still am not. You see coming back from an injury like I did doesn’t mean that you can make it back in a month after you first started moving your legs again. It takes time, a lot of time to each day do just a little more (or at times a little bit less) than you did the day before. It takes a lot of practice, time and rest before one is able to be up and moving for an entire day at a time. At the time of the World Cup I was able to run, to jump, to kick the ball,… I just wasn’t able to do it for a very long time so after a game I would sleep for at least 12 hours, depending on our travel schedule. Apart from sleeping a lot, having a lighter training schedule in general, it was the medical staff that got me through it making sure I was able to play 90 minutes by the time the next game came around. It was a close call at the end of the tournament. The day before the final I was barely able to walk for 5 minutes. Thankfully sleeping close to 18 hours was enough to get me back out there.”

Hope waits a few seconds, before continuing. “After the world cup, I took some time off to rest and afterwards to fully focus on my recovery. I’m still not able to be up and moving for an entire day without having to take a break. I’m close, but not yet fully there.”

"Do you have a time frame for when you will be back a 100%?"  
"It is hard to say. For the not-having-to-take-breaks-part I hope somewhere in January 2016. But some things might never fully recover,.." the interviewer interrupts Hope by asking "like what?"

“I haven’t fully regained feeling in my legs. Some parts feel normal, some parts I have no feeling at all and others It feels like they were recently put under some light narcotics (no cold/hot feeling, just a numb vague pressure feeling)”

“Is it something that will fully return?”  
“The doctors can’t tell for sure. We will see if it returns or not. For the time being. I don't mind taking an ice bath as much as I used to.” Hope ends that last one with a wry smile (knowing it is both a blessing and a curse).

 

“What was the hardest part of your comeback?”

 

“The hardest part of my recovery…” Hope pretends to think about it for a second. As if she could ever come up with just one single thing. “It is fucking hard.” Hope starts her rant, already having forgotten the sentence she had started before.  “And you have to do it every day. There are no days off where you just get to stand up, get out of the wheelchair and live your life like an abled person can do. You don’t get to take a day where you are just able to do whatever you want. There are no weekends. You have to work every single day. Work to get better, work to get anything done at all.”

  
Hope crosses her legs and comes to the realization that she probably wasn’t allowed to curse. After haven taken another second she continues “Of course not every day is the same day. You’ve got regular days. Good days, where you can do just a bit more. Bad days, days where you don’t get anything done because you’re mentally and physically exhausted. My primary focus wasn’t getting back on the team, it did help to have something to look forward to, but it was making sure I got the maximum out of it. If the maximum was me needing a wheelchair to get around, than that would have been ok. But I didn’t want to live and look back, knowing I might have gotten more out of it. There were times I was ready to give up, times where I was tired of not making any progress…” Hope seemed to be lost in her thoughts so the interviewer decided to intervene

“At those times, did having your teammates there for you help?”

Kelley’s hart sunk for a moment. It was a nice gesture from the journalist to wanting to help out Hope. She just couldn’t have asked a worse question.

 

Hope thinks about her friends on the uswnt, how she told the hospital staff she didn’t want to see any visitors. How afterwards, when she was back home the league already started so most of the USWNT players where at the other side of the country. By then most of them got the message. So they did not waste hundreds of dollars to try to fly to Hope, instead some decided to call, text, mail from time to time wanting to let Hope know she was still in their thoughts. She thinks about how she almost let go all those calls, texts and mails unanswered. 

 

“About that…..”

 

Kelley knows all about how Hope shut out all the people she knew (friends, family, teammates….) because in typical Hope Solo fashion, she didn’t want to be portrayed weak. She didn’t want them to see what in Hope’s mind was just a temporary thing. But that didn’t make it any easier to watch Hope talk about it.

 

 

Kelley has no idea how they got there, not that it matters at this point, but she was shocked.

“The first time it happened, it caught me totally of guard. I didn’t want to think about it but at the same time I did. Cause maybe this would be a solution. After that I didn’t trust my mind for a while. Because how would killing myself be a solution? The next time it happened I didn’t have a bad moment before so I hated my mind for going that way. Just 5 minutes before I felt fine or at least that’s what I told myself.

The first two times, I didn’t want to let my mind wander down the suicide path. Because I was afraid of what I might think, might do. But afterwards I learned that for me actively thinking about it and coming up with some new things whenever those thoughts creeped their way back to the fore front actually helped me. In a sense of it made me feel more in control, made the thought last less long.”

 

The interviewer remains silent, not sure what to say.

Hope quickly gets rid of a tear that is threatening to roll down, in an attempt of stopping her mind from going back to that place Hope forces herself to continue talking.

 “There were times where I had no idea what I was still doing here. All my dreams, all my goals, all the things I worked my entire life for, it all had become something impossible. On top of that I couldn’t walk. So I, a new paraplegic, who had no idea who she was anymore was ready to kill herself. I’m not saying that that automatically guarantees having suicidal thoughts but I do think that it is normal to be lost. For me, it just stayed with thoughts, I never sat near the edge of a bridge, never had a knife in my hand with the intend of using it on myself.”

  
She moves her hand so she it is once again touching part of her leg where she can actually feel her hand.

“I don’t know if this is the real reason why at time I never mentioned it. But it is the one I always told myself. I wanted to want to live for myself. I didn’t want to want to live for someone else. Because the moment that person is not able to be there for me the moment I needed them, I might not find the strength myself to get through it. But having people that loved and cared about me near me certainly helped.”  

 

Kelley was taken aback by this for a moment. She of coursed had guessed that the keeper had went through some tough times. But to hear her girlfriend talk about national television about thinking of killing herself. No, that is not something she saw coming. _Did she not pay enough attention to Hope? Did she not show Hope how much she loves her? …_

By the time Kelley forces all those thoughts back, the interview is close to the end.

“I would love to have Kelley as player for the Reign, and that is not me saying so because she is my girlfriend. That is me saying so because she is a damn good and versatile player and I rather have her on my team than having to be on the receiving end of her (SOG). But I also know that Kelley loves her Sky Blue teammates over there so I am not going to make her chose.”

 

“2016, What can we expect?

 

“I’m just focused on the next couple of games. In November, we have some time off so apart from continuing my recovery and maybe get in some small vacation I will sit down with Laura and Jill to talk about the future. But for now, I’m just enjoying my time and looking forward to the rest of the victory tour games.”

 

 

The interview had been over for a while and still neither of them had set anything. With each second passing by Hope became more nervous, suddenly not that sure anymore that the interview was the right thing to have done. Afraid of what Kelley might think of her wanting to kill herself for a stupid thing as not being able to play football anymore. So she let go of Kelley and brings her hands to the side.

This movement is what brings Kelley out of her thoughts. The defender quickly grabs onto Hope’s hands, making sure the keeper can’t pull away any further. Kelley wants to turn around, wants to face her girlfriend for what she is going to say next. But that seemed an impossible thing without letting go of Hope’s hands. So Kelley let go and maneuvered herself so she is looking at her girlfriend.

Kelley’s heart broke as soon as she saw Hope’s expression.  
Not that Hope is looking at her though, the keeper keeps her eyes focused on the TV. Kelley is pretty sure the keeper isn’t registering anything that comes onto the TV.

 

She didn’t want to force the keeper so instead Kelley decided to just start talking herself. Hoping a compliment, one she really meant, might get rid of the keeper’s nerves and insecurities for a moment.

 

“I am SO proud of you. I know doing this interview must not have been an easy thing to do for you. You probably are thinking it was a bad idea but I’m telling you, this doesn’t make you seem weak. This is so powerful, and I will fight anyone that claims otherwise.” The defender ends that last part trying to sound way to serious that Hope can’t help but be touched about all Kelley said. The keeper slowly diverts her gaze so she is looking at Kelley, who’s smiles becomes just a bit bigger.

 

“Opening up like you just did, and answering all questions the way you did” Kelley really hopes that Hope didn’t dodge any questions in the parts she missed. 

“I did good?” the keeper asks in an almost timid manner.  
“Hope, you did great” Kelley could see the pride and fierceness coming back in her girlfriend. She had squared her shoulders just a bit more and the glance in her eyes slowly returned.

 

“If you had added the Starbucks story so we could have had lifelong supply of free coffees, that would have made it awesome”

Hope laughs and Kelley mentally gives herself a pat on the shoulder for a job well done.

Kelley decides she has done enough talking about the interview and all for now and ends it with a sincere “I’m proud of you” followed by one of her trademark hugs.

  
 

 


	70. Something about golden wings and space

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Voila, as promised (before the end of the year) the next chapter.  
> This is just something small in between.  
> The next chapter will be more about opinions of their teammates. I tried to work it into an earlier chapter but wasn't satisfied with what I had written.

Even though Hope claims she didn’t want to do it in the first place, because of her fear of flying, Kelley knows that Hope would have loved to also get a ride from the Blue Angels.  
But the military found the risk too big. They didn’t want to be the ones responsible for permanently putting the greatest keeper in US history in a wheelchair. So somewhere in between a loop and a roll Kelley decides tonight might be the perfect night for her surprise.  
  
While Kelley is up in the air Dan, Karen and Hope wait in some kind of hangar, where a section of the hangar had been transformed into a visitors’ lounge. The trio is offered some free food and drinks. Hope sits down and only then realizes she will spend the next hour alone with Dan and Karen. Not that Dan and Karen are difficult people to start and hold a conversation with. It just will be the first time she is going to be alone with the two for that long of a period of time(and not having the prospect of Kelley or one of her siblings coming to her rescue).  


 

The trio and some other people Hope doesn’t know are driven back out to the runway prior to the landing. With the aircraft on final approach Dan points out some of the procedures the pilot is executing during the landing. Hope had forgotten about him being a Navy fighter pilot himself. She looks at him while he is explaining something about “when landing on an aircraft carrier” and “calling the ball” and in that moment Hope realizes who Kelley has that level of excitement and pride of when talking about something she really likes.  
 

While everyone is walking towards the landed F-18, Hope stays behind. She watches her girlfriend and family from a distance, out of sight of the camera’s. Not that the journalists didn’t know she was there, but this was Kelley’s moment. She watches Kelley climb out of the aircraft. The defender is laughing and doesn't look too bad so Hope figures the ride must have been not that terrible.

 

Once she was given the picture and the photo was taken Kelley, unsteadily, makes her way to her family. Hope spots Dan making his way towards his daughter, probably to support her or at least to grab the frame before she drops and breaks it, but he seemingly changes his mind upon seeing the cameras because he keeps walking until he is out of frame (and thus also passing by Kelley).

 

"You didn't throw up?" Karen asks.  
"Didn’t throw up, I didn't pass out" Kelley states proudly.

 

"feeling very strange right now" The defender states while making her way to her mom. Followed by a "That was very interesting" and with that the cameraman decides to stop recording. Kelley passes the frame off to someone of the airport staff and briefly hugs her mom before excitingly telling all about the flight.

 

They are seated on some golf carts. Kelley squeezes Hope’s hand “Are you ok?”.  
“Why wouldn’t I be?”  
“You were more quiet than I would have expected. So I thought either my parents had roasted you but seeing you all out there like that makes me thinks that’s not it. Which leaves me being up in the air. Something I told you not to do, I had my dad’s wings with me so nothing could have gone wrong.” Kelley adds while taking the golden pair of (pilot)wings out of her pocket. This last one surprised Hope, she hadn’t seen Dan handing one pair of his military pilot wings to Kelley.  
  
“Everything is ok, I just wanted you to enjoy the moment and share it with your family …”  
Dan and Karen where seated in the cart in front of them so Kelley could kiss her girlfriend without said girlfriend turning into a shade of red that would rival the colour of a tomato (Hope is not really comfortable with kissing Kelley in front of her parents)

“You are my family too, don’t forget that”  
Hope nods and changes the subject “So, did you like the flight?”  
“I LOVED IT. But I’m not sure it is something I could do every day.”  
Hope smiles, she kind of had been afraid Kelley liking it too much. This flight is a once in a lifetime opportunity for them. So she didn’t want to see Kelley’s dreams getting crushed by the fact that she will not be able to do a thing she loves so much ever again. But it seems she doesn’t have to worry about all that.

 

 

 

Hope is surprised when Kelley tells her to go pack a small bag for the two of them. Until moments ago, Kelley had been talking about the flight, they had been watching the GoPro video from inside the cockpit and although Dan and Jerry had been making fun of her. Hope can tell that they are both very proud of their daughter/sister.

“What? Where are we going?” It was already dark outside and truth be told, Hope would rather just sit on the couch with Kelley cuddled into her, watching some movie.

“It’s a surprise” Kelley replies excitingly.  
“I’m one hundred percent sure you will love it” Kelley adds, along with a kiss on the cheek. While Hope goes upstairs to pack their overnight bag Kelley goes to the kitchen, packing a bag of her own.

The keeper just catches the end of a banter between Kelley and Erin. Upon seeing the keeper, Erin walks away from Kelley, throwing out a “good night”.  
Hope, confused, quickly returns the “good night” and continues her walk towards Kelley, one eyebrow raised.  
“Ready?” Kelley asks, ignoring the questioning look Hope is giving her.  
Hope holds up a small duffel bag, “Yes I think I’ve got everything.”  
“Great” Kelley grabs a hold of Hope’s hand and walks the two of them towards the garage.

 

While Hope is tying her shoelace, Kelley checks the bag (for the fourth time) to make sure she has indeed packed the surprise. Kelley thinks about taking the four-wheeler, but in the end she decides against it and the couple walk to their destination. With Hope not knowing the way Kelley slows down a bit, making sure they get there without the keeper spraining her ankle.  
“Are you going to tell me where we are going?”  
“Are you going to tell me where we are going to spend our next two weeks?”  
Hope thinks about it for a second. She decides to keep the plans, she had made for their holiday, a secret for a bit longer “No”  
“Then I’m not going to tell you either where we are going” Kelley replies, knowing that the keeper would guess their destination once they are about 2 minutes into their walk.

 

Kelley leads the two of them without any problems to the boatshed. A small cabin near a lake, not too far from the O’Hara’s main house. From the outside, it looks like any other old boatshed.  
But Hope knows how the inside looks like. The inside, isn’t like any other regular boatshed. Unless the regular boatshed is a Karen O’Hara-remodeled and equipped with state of the art home cinema boatshed, then it is.

 

The two of them switch into more comfortable clothes. Hope is tasked with preparing the popcorn and other stuff Kelley had packed.

“So what movie are we going to watch that we couldn’t watch at your parent’s place?” Hope asks while dropping the popcorn into a bowl.  
“Star Wars”  
This surprised Hope because not only had they just re-watched all the movies (so they are all set for when the new one is shown in theaters) but also because it made no sense for them coming all the way here just to watch Star Wars.  
The keeper leans against the doorpost and looks in the direction of the living ‘room’  “Which one?”  
“The one with C-3PO in.” Kelley replies while taking out the DVD.  
Hope shakes her head “Well that narrows it down” and walks back to pick up the tray.  
Kelley smiles but apart from that, she doesn’t reply.

Hope sets down the tray and eats already some of the more healthy snack Kelley packed. The keeper sits down and watches Kelley sending out a text. The keeper is a bit    

 

Once they are both seated comfortably Kelley presses play.  
While Hope is watching the screen, watching the ‘LUCASFILM’ appear on screen, Kelley is watching Hope. Hope’s reaction the moment she realized what episode they are going to watch tonight is just golden.  

So when the keeper turns towards Kelley to ask her “What, How? …” she looks at a very bright smiling Kelley who is holding up her phone. But Hope doesn’t really register that last one.

The defender stops recording before answering “Well, being a world cup champion and being the girlfriend of a Solo does have it perks”  
Hope couldn’t believe she was going to watch the newest Star Wars movie a little over a month before the premiere in LA. 

  
“Seriously? You got this for me?”  
“Yes. Well since you also got me into the whole Star Wars thing I kind of also did it for me but yeah.”  
Hope’s smile rivals the one Kelley is supporting.  
“YOU ARE THE BEST”

Hope is eager to know how Kelley pulled this one exactly off but that will have to wait until after the movie. While hope rewinds the movie to the beginning Kelley quickly sends the fragment to her connection at Disney and added “I think she loves it. THANK YOU!!”

Once the text is sent, Kelley turns off her phone and puts it away. She grabs her mug of chocolate milk and snuggles into Hope, ready to watch ‘The Force Awakens’.

 


	71. NOLA

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I made it :)  
> Mananged to get at least one update out this year.  
> I'm sorry for taking so long to update the story.  
> It's just that 'm going through a pretty difficult and tiring recovery myself, not entirely the same one Hope's going through in this story.  
> So whemever I did have the energy to write I felt that I reflected too much of myself into Hope's character, making her a bit too bitter.  
> It also didn't help that I wrote the chapters following the one I uploaded last a thousand times. Never really managing to catch the moment as I had pictured it in my head. 
> 
> This chapter is more so a closing one for this part of the story. The next part will more so focus on Hope and Kelley's journey close to and after retirement. 
> 
> I'm not entirely satified with the update but decided to leave the dissapointment in 2017 and publish this chapter anyway. 
> 
> I do hope it is still kinda fun to read.

December 16th 2015

 

It's strange, a while ago Hope thought she was going to be the one that left the game without getting to say goodbye. But now she is standing by and watching some of her teammates walk away from the game, while she herself is once again proudly wearing the number one jersey.

 

Having to say goodbye to Shannon, Cheney and Lori wasn't easy. She wasn't the best of friends with all of them but in one way or another they all had meant very much to her at some point in her career. Cheney leaving was more painful cause it meant that she wasn't doing as well as generally assumed.

Pearcie didn’t retire officially, but she did talk to Hope in Hawaii. In fact, she wasn't the only one who thought it was the perfect moment to talk to Hope to comment on her personal life. At a point, after getting at least 5 teammates coming by at separate occasions, Hope was certain they had had some secret meeting that she wasn't aware off. Christie however set her at ease, telling her that they all must have seen what she saw. She saw a genuine happy and relaxed Hope (and Kelley). After all most of them had witnessed at least a bunch of moments of the two acting more as a couple than they have ever allowed themselves to be around the team. Christie claimed that it was because the two of them had just spend a month together as a couple just doing whatever they wanted to do.

Her talk with Pearcie ended on a much more serious note, leaving Hope with the impression that she would never play with Christie in front of her again.  Which was a shame cause Hope wanted to get a proper goodbye for Christie, one that she has deserved.

 

 

\---------------

 

 

Hope had mixed feelings going into tonight's game. Abby's and her relationship has always been a complicated one. She learned early on that she doesn't need to go to the forward for support. In the beginning she could go to Abby whenever she wanted her honest opinion but after one too many altercations, Hope realized that that wasn't always the case. Certainly not when it was about going against the federation.

 

Hope knows she just should keep on walking. The last thing she should do is think about how she was walking cause that only makes it worse. Losing a game isn’t fun. Limping afterwards cause your brain has decided to once again forget how to move your right leg to properly walk is even worse.

The keeper is currently on her way to go see the freshly retired forward. After dinner Abby had some interviews to do with Foudy. Needless to stay Hope stayed far away. But now with some of the team out celebrating and others already on their way home, Hope decides it is the perfect moment to say goodbye.

 

 

"HEY" Abby snaps.  
But before she gets a chance to give the person who just took away her whiskey bottle a full on swearing..... she saw that Hope was the one that took the bottle, and shut her mouth again.

 

Hope full on intended to take a swig but somewhere in between she changes her mind and puts the bottle back down. The conversation starts off slow, with them talking about a bunch of stuff that don't really matter.

 

"So you and Kelley"

Hope sits up a bit straighter, even after all they went through, she still values Abby opinion. But leave no doubt she will punch Abby if whatever is she is going to say next is insulting.

"I can't say I saw that one come." Abby says, while reaching for the bottle so she can take another swig.

"She's a good kid. ... So don't let her walk away. I know that she is the beep test sprint queen. But you have some damn good speed for a keeper .... .” trailing off, eyeing the bottle Hope once again took away from her.

 

Hope smiles, "thank you"

 

Feeling that whatever had to be said between the two of them has been said. Hope hands Abby back her bottle of whiskey and stands up. Before exiting the room she turns back around and gives her ex-coworker one final piece of advice "you really should do something about it." Both knowing Hope spoke not only about Abby's drinking problem but also about Abby's drug addiction.

"Good luck" and with that, Hope did leave the room. Somehow it sounded more as a final goodbye that it did wishing Abby all the best.

 

Once out of the room Hope takes out her phone, she felt it vibrate a while back.

“HI, babe. Since I got your voicemail, I assume you’re still out doing that thing you had to take care of. I just wanted to let you know that we are out near the bbq place alongside the boardwalk.” Hope could hear Sonnet and Mewis in the back, “Anyway, I expect you to show up soon and Hope Solo, I love you.” Even the catcalls from their friends couldn’t stop Hope from smiling.

“Judging from the smile on your face, I’d say that Kelley left you one hell of a message.”

“What? No, that was just Kelley ….. telling me were they hanging out.” Hope stumbles…

"you're leaving already?" Hope tries to recover

"yes, I have a plane to catch"

"Paris?"

Tobin nods,

"Tell her I said hi."

"Will do. You know, you and Kelley should come visit."

“We will, but maybe rather somewhere beginning next year before the NWSL season starts again”

“I’m gonna hold you to that Hope” Tobin replies while hugging her friend.

“Why don’t I drive you to the airport. That way I have a car nearby and don’t need to walk all the way back to the hotel with a bunch of half passed out teammates? Well that is only if you don’t prefer Tony’s company over mine” Hope asked, she didn’t really feel like walking to catch up with the others and her legs felt good enough to be able to safely drive a car.

“Seriously? I’d love it.”

“Ok, can we make a small detour, I have to pick something up”

“Yeah sure. So, I heard you, Kelley, Moe and Sonnet are going to drive to Atlanta tomorrow.”  
“yes we are.”

"You agreed to a 7 hours road trip with those 3? (you're in deep shit)"

"Says the one that is going to fly all the way across the Atlantic not more than a couple hours after having played the full 90." the keeper counters

"What can I say, love makes a woman do crazy stuff."

"Yes it does" Hope agrees

 

 

 ----------------------

 

 

 

“HOOOOOOOPE” A cheery JJ calls out, getting up to hug Hope.  
The keeper has to steady JJ a bit and leads her back to the chair she had been sitting on.

“What took you so long?” Carli asks  
“I dropped Tobin off at the airport, that way I have a car parked nearby”  
Carli nodding let her know that she understood the not mentioned reason behind it.

Upon hearing this, Kelley's gaze found her pretty quick. Hope subtly nods her head, indicating everything is ok.

She sits down between JJ and Sam, with a Gatorade in her hand she listens to the conversations that continued. Throughout the night they switch places, some players call it a night and that’s how Hope ended up sitting next to Kelley. The defender doesn’t take long before leaning against Hope. The keeper in turn, swung her arm around Kelley. Both keeping up their respective conversations.

Sonnet got distracted by Alyssa talking shit about something Kelley didn’t entirely pick up. Being without someone to talk to, Kelley takes the opportunity to just sit back and watch. She looks at her friends, most of them are talking or laughing. Than you have Moe who fell asleep and Carli counting stars or at least that’s what she claimed to be doing 10 minutes ago. You could hear the water in the back, the fire cracking a bit.

Kelley thinks about the year she has had. She still can’t believe that she is here, with the NT, having won a World Cup in the summer. Where she even managed to score a kick ass goal against Germany. Sky blue was also pretty cool. They didn’t have the year she wanted to have had but she made some really good friends on the team. So they still managed to have a pretty good time.

 

Life outside football has been pretty cool in general. Life with Hope is different. It is spending a lot of time planning ahead, only to have to throw away the entire schedule cause Hope isn’t feeling as well as foreseen. It is spending a bit less time with her parents, her siblings. But in turn she got to spend quite some time with Hope, especially after October. She and Hope started November off with two weeks in the mountains. It was clear she, unlike Hope, isn’t made for the cold. Even so, they still had a great time on the snow scooter, had some pretty epic snowball fights but once back inside the house, Kelley spend almost all of her time close to the fire place. Then went to Atlanta to warm up  (as Kelley put it) and to also spend some time with her family before thanksgiving. Followed by a week or so on Hawaii, meeting up with Cope and some of their teammates before the camp. Camp in Hawaii was still work, but they made sure to also enjoy the island. So yeah, life with Hope can be frustrating at times. But most of all life with Hope is adventure, laughter, sometimes it is pushing herself out of her comfort zone. But she wouldn’t want to give it up any time soon.

 

“You ok there?” Hope softly asks, after nudging Kelley  
“yeah” Kelley looks up from the flames “I just realized what an amazing year I’ve had.”

Hope smiles, she herself had come to that realization a month back.

“Thank you”  
“Thank me for?”  
“For loving me, for taking me on those adventures, for being there for me,..-“  
Hope’s a bit shy and does the one thing that will silence Kelley, she leans in and kisses her girlfriend.

 

  
“I think it is time for us to head back. Kelley’s getting sappy” Emily shouts.

Kelley’s only protest is the slap on Sonnet’s arm.

  


 ------------------ 

 

Kelley doesn’t know if it always has been a habit of Hope or if it is something she picked up after the accident, but the keeper seemingly always slept on her back.

She would lie on her side for a couple minutes than turn onto the other side for approximately the same amount of minutes. But she would only sleep on her back.

There are a few more habits that Hope most probably picked up after the accident. Like how she has to pick up her left leg with her hands when she wants to put in her sock or shoe while sitting down.

She manages to lift up her right leg just fine but the left leg, She always uses her hands to lift the left one. Kelley isn’t sure if Hope is still doing those habits because it is less difficult, less tiring to do it in that way. Or if it is just because she has gotten so used to doing this way.

Looking back at Hope, Kelley realises yesterday might have been a bit too much. It was the last game of the year and as Hope argumented, they are going to take it easy for the next couple of days.

 

“Your being a creep again” Hope mumbles. surprising Kelley.

_Or maybe not that passed out after all._

“I can’t help that my girlfriend has such a hot body” Kelley tries.  
Seeing Hope’s cheeks are way more blushed than they were a couple seconds before, Kelley’s tactic worked.

 

Without having opened her eyes so far, Hope rolls onto her side and reaches for Kelley. She pulls the younger woman closer. She figures that way, Kelley can’t stare at her anymore. Well it would be a different kind of staring.

“You’re up early”  
“It’s 10.30”  
“So, I say again. You are up early”  
“I promised Sonnet we’d go out before lunch …” Kelley says while freeing herself from Hope’s grip and adds “Sleep some more, it’s only 10.30”

Hope turns back onto her back and mumbles “Neither of you two are going to drive tonight. “

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for sticking around !!!  
> Happy new year! Hope it is going to be a good one !!


End file.
